bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Occupational Segregation
Authors: Yl Youngmin , Weeden Kim A.
Published: September 2017

Occupational segregation refers to the uneven distribution of social groups (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity) across occupations in a national, regional, or local labor market. The
level
of occupational segregation indicates the extent to which groups are distributed unevenly across occupations. Perfect segregation occurs if no occupations are populated by workers from different groups; perfect integration occurs if every occupation contains the same proportion of workers from each social group. Levels of occupational segregation are typically measured with the Duncan index (D), which measures the percentage of members of a social group who would have to change occupations in order to achieve perfect integration, or the log‐linear index (A), which indicates the multiplicative factor by which members of a social group are overrepresented in the average occupation. The
pattern
of segregation refers to the configuration of representation in particular occupations. Patterns of gender segregation, for example, are described by the percentage of men (or women) in each occupation or by the odds ratios in a table of counts of men and women in each occupation (e.g., Charles and Grusky, 2004).
Office Ladies
Authors: Kurihara Tomoko
Published: September 2017

“Office lady” (ofisu redì), or in its shortened form OL (ō eru), is a term commonly used in Japan to describe female workers who are employed in submanagerial positions in white‐collar workplaces. In its popular usage, the term OL lacks specificity and usually refers to women who work in any office environment, in a firm of any size, and in any sector or occupation, whereas the scholarly work on OLs has tended to focus on women working in large companies employing over 1,000 people. Typically, OL refers to young unmarried women in their twenties and thirties, but its usage is flexible and may refer to the full range of marital statuses, including married individuals with or without children, and older, either single or widowed working women. The term OL was coined by the media in the 1960s to represent the greater numbers of women who had entered the labor market following the structural changes in the post‐war economy, mainly in the expansion of the service, wholesale, and retail industries. The emergence of the term appeared to mark the empowerment of women in society, suggesting that women were able to form an identity primarily based on their role as workers. In spite of this, for much of the twentieth century the image of the independent working woman in Japan was limited to her main role as a powerful consumer of high fashion and overseas travel. For this reason, in parallel to the feminist critiques of patriarchy and workplace employment practices, it seems that the term OL has acquired somewhat pejorative connotations, as keeping women on the periphery of economy, workplace, and society. From the late 1990s onwards, the term “career woman” has become a respectful self‐reference preferred among the new generation of OLs. Indeed, postmodernization and the expansion of knowledge‐intensive occupations have allowed a greater proportion of female workers to take up jobs in specialist clerical, professional, and managerial positions in the fields of banking, finance and retail distribution, and information technology.
Olympics
Authors: Segrave Jeffrey O.
Published: September 2017

The Olympics comprise both the athletic and cultural dimensions of the modern International Olympic Movement. The brainchild of the widely acknowledged founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, the modern International Olympic Movement was voted into being on June 23, 1894 at the International Congress in Paris. A total of 79 delegates representing 49 sports associations from 12 countries unanimously voted for the restoration of the Olympic Games and for the creation of a permanent International Olympic Committee (IOC). With unquestionable powers as guide, guardian, and arbiter, the IOC remains the umbrella organization and ultimate authority in the conduct of the games.
Olympics
Authors: Segrave Jeffrey O.
Published: September 2017

The Olympics comprise both the athletic and the cultural dimensions of the modern international Olympic movement. The brainchild of the widely acknowledged founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, the modern international Olympic movement was voted into being on June 23, 1984, at the International Congress in Paris. A total of 79 delegates representing 49 sports associations from 12 countries unanimously voted for the restoration of the Olympic games and for the creation of a permanent International Olympic Committee (IOC). With unquestionable powers as guide, guardian, and arbiter, the IOC remains the umbrella organization and ultimate authority on the conduct of the games.
One Drop Rule
Authors: Lemelle Anthony
Published: September 2017

The one drop rule was a social construction that emerged discursively in US history. The language was first used by the government in the Fourteenth Census in 1920 when the color line was redefined by the Census Bureau. Instead of using the category “mulattoes,” the Bureau adopted the one drop rule. According to it, “the term ‘white’ as used in the census report refers to persons understood to be pure‐blooded whites. A person of mixed blood is classified according to the nonwhite racial strain.” Thus, “a person of mixed white … and Negro … is classified as … a Negro … regardless of the amount of white blood” (Bureau of the Census 1923). By 1924 the term one drop rule was also being used in state legislation. For example, in 1924, a Virginia Act for “Preservation of Racial Integrity” defined a white person as someone with “no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian” (Hickman 1967). And the Virginia legislature in 1930 defined as colored anyone “in whom there is ascertainable any negro blood” (Hickman 1967).
Oral Sex
Authors: Curtis Bruce
Published: September 2017

Oral sex is broadly defined as oral‐genital stimulation. Cunnilingus refers to oral‐vaginal stimulation, fellatio to oral‐penile stimulation, and analingus to anal‐lingual stimulation. Across the sweep of sexual practices in human societies both historically and cross‐culturally, oral sex figures in an extremely wide variety of forms, themselves valued in very different ways. The focus here is on oral sex within heterosexual relations, but oral sex plays an important part in homosexual relations. In some historical configurations of sexual practices in South Asia, for instance, the tasting of another man's semen was thought to stimulate the desire for heterosexual intercourse. In another configuration, fellatio was seen as a substitute for heterosexual intercourse, something to be received from a eunuch, but certainly not by a man from his wife. In the West, oral sex was often subject to legal prohibitions against “sodomy,” both hetero‐ and homosexual, and in some states in the US it remains a criminal offense.
Orality
Authors: Jacobsen Martin M.
Published: September 2017

Orality describes cultures or populations whose worldviews, rhetorical principles, and mental constructs develop in the absence of widespread, systematic, and habitual literacy and also refers to the coexistent or residual presence of orality in habitually literate cultures. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between primary orality and secondary orality. Primary orality (and thus primary oral cultures) describes cultures that privilege the spoken word as the only means of social and interpersonal communication, often lacking even a basic orthography. Secondary orality describes the presence of oral and/or pseudo‐oral elements in habitually literate cultures. Each of these will be discussed in more detail.
Organizational Contingencies
Authors: Currie Graeme , Suhomlinova Olga
Published: September 2017

Organizational contingencies are factors that moderate the effect of organizational characteristics on organizational performance. Whether a particular level of organizational characteristic would lead to high performance depends on the level of the contingency factor. If there is a fit between the level of contingency and the level of organizational characteristic, then, other things being equal, superior performance results; if there is a misfit, performance suffers.
Organizational Deviance
Authors: Friedrichs David O.
Published: September 2017

Deviance has most typically been viewed in individualistic terms. But some of the most significant and consequential deviance and crime is carried out on behalf of organizations, and through the resources that only organizations are able to provide. Accordingly, in the most common invocation of the term organizational deviance, the organization is conceived of as the “actor” that carries out deviant and criminal activities (Bamberger & Sonnenstuhl 1998). Since organizational deviance is inherently social, and collective, it should be of special interest to students of sociology. It has always been a fundamental tenet of sociology that a social entity is more than simply the sum of its individual participants and members.
Organizational Deviance
Authors: Friedrichs David O.
Published: September 2017

Since this encyclopedia was first published in 2007 the financial crisis of 2008 and after potently reinforced the notion of organizational deviance. The economy was severely battered by deceptive and fraudulent practices deeply embedded with the culture of major financial organizations (Friedrichs, 2013; Mandis, 2013). Recognition of the profound harmfulness of the activities of such financial organizations was exemplified by the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011–2012.
Organizations
Authors: Hunt Stephen
Published: September 2017

A broad definition of an organization could be said to be that of any purposeful arrangement of social activity that implies active control over human relations ordered for particular ends. In this sense, organizations involve patterns of relationships beyond primary group associations that are largely spontaneous, unplanned, and informal, and that are typified by kinship relations, peer groups, and localized community networks. There is, however, no generally accepted definition of an organization since its meaning may vary in terms of the different sociological approaches applied to the subject. Moreover, while organizations may be deliberately constructed or reconstructed for specific ends, the problem of definition founders on the specification of “organizational goals,” since groups and individuals within organizations may hold a variety of different and competing goals and the level of compliance and cooperation displayed by subordinates may vary, thus leading to the distinction between “formal” and “informal” organizations.
Organizations and Sexuality
Authors: Hearn Jeff
Published: September 2017

The recognition of sexuality as a central feature of organization(s) is relatively recent, and prompted by a range of disciplinary and theoretical positions. Foremost of these is second‐wave feminism, highlighting concerns with women's control over their bodies and sexuality, and offering critiques of the sexualization of organizations and sexist uses of sexuality, in advertising and other organizational displays. A second force for change has been the modern lesbian and gay movements. Another stimulus has been poststructuralist and postcolonial theory. The most profound impact of such moves has been in problematizing sexuality, especially heterosexuality, and essentialized, naturalized views of sexuality, and, with queer theory, “homosexuality” too.
Organizations and the Theory of the Firm
Authors: Heugens Pursey P. M. A. R.
Published: September 2017

When economists speak of a theory of the firm, they mean something very specific. They use the term either to denote a theory that addresses the issue of the existence and boundaries of the multi‐person firm, or to explain its internal structure and organization. Examples of the former type may rightly be called
why
theories of the firm, as they seek to explain why firms exist in the face of institutional alternatives like markets and hybrids. Representatives of the latter type are best addressed as
how
theories of the firm, as they set out to provide accounts of how complex organizations succeed in combining the heterogeneous inputs of differentially motivated individuals into meaningful collective outcomes (Heugens 2005).
Organizations as Total Institutions
Authors: Perry Nick
Published: September 2017

The analysis of the characteristics of total institutions is the subject of a lengthy essay by Erving Goffman, a Canadian‐born sociologist best known for his complex and subtle contributions to the analysis of social interaction. He defined the term as “a place of residence and work where a large number of like‐situated individuals cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time together lead an enclosed formally administered round of life” (Goffman 1961: xiii). Shorter versions of his argument were first published in 1957. It was, however, through the longer paper's appearance as the lead essay in his second book,Asylums(1961: 1–124), that the concept became best known.
Orthodoxy
Authors: Kokosalakis Nikos
Published: September 2017

Orthodoxy is a major branch of Christianity, represented by the Eastern Orthodox Church, with an unbroken continuity to the apostolic tradition and a claim to be the depositor of the authentic Christian faith and practice. Today, the Orthodox Church consists of the ancient patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antiochia, Jerusalem) and various national autocephalous churches. The Patriarchate of Constantinople, also called Ecumenical, enjoys the primacy of honor among all the other patriarchates and the rest of the Orthodox autocephalous churches without having any administrative or other jurisdiction over them whatsoever. The churches of Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Georgia carry patriarchal status – being led by a patriarch. The churches of Greece, Cyprus, and Albania are led by archbishops. There are also the smaller, autonomous Orthodox churches of Poland, Finland and former Czechoslovakia. The Greek diaspora, with full church organization (dioceses, parishes, etc.) in America, Europe, and Australia, is under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Russian diaspora is under the Patriarchate of Moscow. In all, the Orthodox populations (practicing in the broad sense) in the world today are estimated between 170–180 million. According to Ware (1963: 15): “The Orthodox Church, thus, is a family of self‐governing Churches. It is held together … by the double bond of unity in the faith and communion in the sacraments.”
Paradigms
Authors: Lincoln Yvonna S. , Guba Egon G.
Published: September 2017

Paradigms are perhaps one of the most contested terms in qualitative research. While some authors and methodologists use the term to denote a set of methods or methodologies (Tashakkori & Teddlie 2003), others claim that the term has many uses. Some authors point out that Thomas Kuhn, who brought the term into common usage in hisStructure of Scientific Revolutions(1962), himself used the term in over 25 different ways. Kuhn's general thesis was that paradigms were dominant theories or models by which science proceeded, until they were overtaken and superseded by newer and more encompassing theories or models, or both. Rohmann (1999: 295) defines paradigm as “An ideal or archetypal pattern or example that provides a model to be emulated.” A preference here, however, is the definition provided by Reese (1980) and adopted by Lincoln and Guba (1985: 15): “asetof basic or metaphysical beliefs … sometimes constituted into asystem of ideasthat ‘either give us some judgment about the nature of reality, or a reason why we must be content with knowing something less than the nature of reality, along with a method for taking hold of whatever can be known’ [Reese 1980: 352].”
Paternalism
Authors: Jarmon Charles
Published: September 2017

Paternalism is evidenced by a pattern of gift‐giving (or sponsorship) from a more powerful or higher‐status group or individual to a lower‐status group or individual that is consistent with a system designed to maintain privileged positions. It usually occurs in situations where there are sharp differences in power and status between groups or individuals. The “benevolence” associated with the actions of those in the more favorable position is usually reciprocated by acts of dependency or accommodation by those in the less favorable position. It is manifested in the different configurations and levels of race and ethnic identities, such as between national groups and groups and individuals within nations. Fanon (1963) provides an incisive analysis of paternalism in the relations between some of the former European colonial powers and the formerly colonized nations of Africa, Asia, and South America. Much more discussion has focused on paternalism within the nation‐state, in countries where slave or apartheid systems developed as in the US and South Africa (DuBois 1903; Frazier 1939, 1957; Myrdal 1944; Thompson 1944; Cox 1948; Stampp 1956; Ruef & Flecther 2003). This discussion illustrates how paternalism has functioned in the US.
Path Analysis
Authors: Swatos William H.
Published: September 2017

Because of the difficulty in sociological research of conducting experiments that will yield valid and meaningful results, sociologists have looked for quasi‐experimental designs in which statistical measures can be interrelated in a logical sequence to suggest causality. Path analysis is the most widely used of such approaches. Path analysis combines both a theoretical (or logical) analysis with a statistical analysis, inasmuch as a logical argument must be introduced to suggest appropriate causal sequences. While some of these logical connections are obvious (gender obviously comes before marriage, for example), others are a matter of theoretical argument as part of a larger project (does image of God precede or follow religious affiliation or are there ongoing interaction effects between the two?). Through multiple and partial regression analysis, and statistical controls that attempt to match test and control populations as closely as possible, a researcher attempts to demonstrate both quantitatively and logically a pattern of causality that would be similar to what might result if an actual experimental design were able to have been put into place by providing estimates of the total direct and indirect effects of one variable on another. In most simple causal modeling, path coefficients are
beta weights
, which represent a measurement of changes in a dependent variable in terms of standard deviation units for each of the other variables (standardized regression coefficients) in series, creating adjusted slopes of the regression line which are comparable from one variable to the next, working backward from the dependent variable.
Pedophilia
Authors: Yuill Richard , Evans David T.
Published: September 2017

Pedophilia's significance in late modernity rests on its unconventionality, an extreme symbol of sexual decadence threatening “moral” communities and nation‐states. Over the past 25 years, pedophilia has mostly been formulated through political campaigns, professional etiologies, and media‐led local “moral panics,” notably in the campaign for “Megan's Law.”
Performance Ethnography
Authors: Pelias Ronald J.
Published: September 2017

Performance ethnography takes as its working premise that a theatrical representation of what one discovers through participant observation fieldwork provides a vibrant and textured rendering of cultural others. Performance for the performance ethnographer is typically understood as an interpretive as well a critical artistic act within a theatrical tradition. In western cultures, this artistic endeavor calls upon actors through their use of presentational skills to evoke others for their own edification and for the consideration of audiences. Not to be confused with the ethnography of performance which examines cultural performances as objects of investigation, performance ethnography relies upon the embodiment of cultural others. As such, it is a method of inquiry that privileges the body as a site of knowing.
Personal is Political
Authors: Ryan Barbara
Published: September 2017

The
personal is political
was a term used in the early days of the contemporary women's movement to mean that if something was happening to you, it was happening to other women too. What appeared to be a personal issue was actually a political one that occurred because of unequal gender relations. Exclusion and exploitation were not individual acts, but were shared under a system of patriarchy.
Photography
Authors: Lister Martin
Published: September 2017

By chemically fixing the images produced by cameras, photography (literally “light writing”) was the first technology in history to automate the production of visual images by freeing them from a reliance on skilled hand‐eye coordination. It also enabled the mechanical reproduction of existing visual images. From the mid‐nineteenth century onwards, photography radically changed when and where images could be made, their relationship to time and movement, who could make them, and the uses to which images could be put. It placed the visual image at the center of a wide range of social, cultural, and scientific practices. Photography was a key factor in the emergence of modern societies pervaded by throwaway images, seductive spectacles, and surveillance through vision.
Play Stage
Authors: Vail D. Angus
Published: September 2017

The play stage is one of the three central components of George Herbert Mead's seminal discussion of the social foundation and development of the self. According to Mead, the self has a social genesis which becomes evident if one examines the ways that people develop a sense for their own being as something separate from, but also interdependent with, other people. In essence, the self is situated in the individual's capacity to take account of him/herself. By examining children's styles of play, followed by the games they play, one can see how they develop a capacity to take into account not just the role of a singular other person, but also eventually the roles of many people simultaneously. It is only once a person has reached this stage of development that she or he is said to have developed a complete self. Mead (1962 [1934]: 150, 152–4) first addressed the stage of development he called the play stage.
Pogroms
Authors: Michlic Joanna
Published: September 2017

The term pogrom came into widespread use in Russia in the late nineteenth century. Originally it defined an organized massacre for the destruction or annihilation of any group of people. Since 1905–6, in the English‐speaking world, it evolved into a term chiefly used to describe any riots directed against Jews in the modern era. Both in Russia and the West the term pogrom came to connote “official planning and collusion,” and was contrasted with the term riot defined as spontaneous strife or disorder on the part of the populace. It has recently been argued that neither the term riot nor pogrom effectively captures the dynamics of the most violent occurrences involving large crowds, which tend to share the features of both definitions: elements of organization and planning on the one hand, and spontaneity on the other hand (Brass 1996).
Political Leadership
Authors: Walter James
Published: September 2017

Political leadership concerns those who play the decisive roles in institutions that determine “who gets what, when, how” (Lasswell 1977). It is best understood in terms of process (the means by which an individual or group persuades followers to accede to the leadership's purposes) rather than of status (those in specific roles). While power relations, and hence politics, exist in the smallest of groups, and leadership can be studied at every level – from the work group to global forums – political leadership is usually analyzed in a broad societal context in relation to processes of governance.
Political Leadership
Authors: Walter James
Published: September 2017

Political leadership concerns those who play, in institutions, the decisive roles that determine “who gets what, when, how” (Lasswell, 1936). Power relations – and hence politics – exist in the smallest of groups, and leadership can be studied at every level – from the workgroup to global forums. Some social scientists understand leadership as a necessary social function within group and institutions, while others interpret it in terms of individual characteristics that seed the drive for power and facilitate success or failure in its exercise. The first approach drew on the foundational analyses of elite formation and bureaucratic rationalization (e.g., Michels, 1968 [1911]; Weber, 1961 [1922]), while the second drew on psychological theory as applied to the question of power (for example, Lasswell, 1977 [1930]). Both were later tempered by the emergence of social psychology; and the best contemporary work bridges institutional structure, historical context, group processes, and psychology (Elcock, 2001).
Political Machine
Authors: Thornton Patricia M.
Published: September 2017

An urban political machine is a partisan organization that mobilizes its members to vote primarily through the dispersion of material incentives and other forms of preferential treatment, including favoritism based on political criteria in personnel decisions, contracting, and the administration of laws. While the degree and scope of political machines varied, both from city to city as well as over time, they were widely perceived as organizations capable of mobilizing broad swaths of the urban electorate to deliver a vote with mechanical predictability.
Political Parties
Authors: Riley Dylan
Published: September 2017

Political parties are organized currents of opinion that aim to realize a program by controlling a political association. Parties can emerge only where there exists politics defined as a struggle over the leadership or the influence of the leadership of a human group. To the extent that leadership divides among estates, clans, or families according to tradition and is not the object of struggle, neither politics nor parties can exist. Modern party organizations are connected with the rise of the modern state, because modern parties aim at seizing (either through electoral means or violence) state power (Weber 1958 [1946]: 78–81; Sartori 1976: 4; Pombeni 1985: 20; Held 1987: 165). There are three broad schools of thought about parties: Marxism, pluralism, and elitism.
Politics and Sport
Authors: Houlihan Barrie
Published: September 2017

Four overlapping definitions of politics are presented (as institutions of government, social relations, decision‐making processes and outcomes) and the implications for the study of sport are examined. The implications of Lukesian and Foucauldian conceptualisations of power for the study of sport politics are discussed. The domestic and foreign policy motives for government involvement in sport are explored with particular emphasis on the sport as a nation‐building resource and as a soft power diplomatic resource. The entry concludes with the identification of a series of current research priorities which includes the analysis of government strategies of intervention in the policy area, the problem of accountability and governance in relation to international federations, and management of relations between sport organizations and commercial interests.
Polyamory
Authors: Klesse Christian
Published: September 2017

Polyamory is a novel concept that has surfaced over recent decades in the debates about non‐monogamy. Polyamory circumscribes a relationship philosophy, an identity, or a lifestyle that evolves around the belief that it is worthwhile and valid to have more than one partner. Combining word elements derived from Greek (poly) and Latin (amory), the term literally translates into “many loves.” The concept of polyamory aims at providing a positive alternative to the more common term “non‐monogamy,” which draws its meaning primarily from a negation of the dominant term “monogamy.” As a relationship ideology, polyamory encourages multiple or open relationships and challenges the normative ideal of compulsory monogamy.
Popular Culture
Authors: Miller Toby
Published: September 2017

The word “popular” denotes “of the people,” “by the people,” and “for the people.” In other words, it is made up of them as
subjects
, whom it textualizes via drama, sport, and information;
workers
, who undertake that textualization through performances and recording; and
audiences
, who interpret the ensuing texts.
Population and Economy
Authors: Crenshaw Edward M.
Published: September 2017

From the inception of the social sciences, population variables have been recognized as crucial determinants of economic development and organization. From the start, two competing schools of thought vied for predominance, one a pessimistic view of population's role in economic change derived from Thomas Malthus, the other a far more optimistic view of population as the wellspring of prosperity.
Populism
Authors: Brito Myriam
Published: September 2017

In general terms, the concept of populism aims to describe sociopolitical movements, forms of government, political regimes, and/or ideological formulae that focus around the idea of the
people
, understood as a “virtuous” social ensemble that carries values that are considered to be “superior.” Populism is also characterized by the action of charismatic leaders, the use of a rhetoric discourse, a particular relationship between the leaders and the social groups that give them support, and different types of social mobilizations. Populism is nevertheless a problematic concept for both political science and political sociology since this notion has been used and is still used to describe a multiplicity of phenomena that have important differences.
Pornography and Erotica
Authors: Hardy Simon
Published: September 2017

The terms “pornography” and “erotica” are often defined in opposition to each other and are best treated together. As a minimal descriptive definition we may say that both refer to mediated communication that depicts sexually explicit subject matter. But beyond this the two terms part company in a variety of ways. “Erotica” was coined in the 1950s to designate something more elevated and exclusive than pornography. Social scientists have drawn up typologies for categorizing sexually explicit material. These usually oppose the “ideal” character of erotica, in which no power relations are discerned, with the degrading and sexist nature of “standard” or “violent” pornography. Today the term erotica is often used in reference to material produced by and for women and gays as opposed to (male) pornography. There is also a range of distinctions made in terms of intentions and outcomes; pornography is designed to sexually arouse the producer and/or audience, whereas erotica is whatever a given individual finds arousing; pornography induces a purely sexual response, whereas erotica combines sexual with emotional and aesthetic responses; pornography stimulates solitary male masturbation whereas erotica provides an aphrodisiac for interpersonal sex.
Pornography and Erotica
Authors: Hardy Simon
Published: September 2017

The terms “pornography” and “erotica” are often defined in opposition to each other. As a minimal definition both refer to mediated communication that depicts sexually explicit subject matter, but beyond that the two terms part company in a variety of ways. “Erotica” was coined in the 1950s to designate something more elevated and exclusive than pornography. Social scientists have drawn up typologies for categorizing sexually explicit material. These usually oppose the “ideal” character of erotica, in which no power relations are discerned, with the degrading and sexist nature of “standard” or “violent” pornography. Today the term “erotica” is often used in reference to material produced by and for women as opposed to (male) pornography. There are also a range of distinctions made in terms of intentions and outcomes; pornography is designed to sexually arouse the producer and/or audience, whereas erotica is whatever the individual finds arousing; pornography induces a purely sexual response, whereas erotica combines sexual with emotional and aesthetic responses; pornography stimulates solitary masturbation whereas erotica provides an aphrodisiac for interpersonal sex. Another approach is to see the category of pornography as a function of censorship: that to which the social elite restrict access by means of administrative or legal exclusion. Here we must introduce another important distinction: that between “hard core” and “soft core.” What must be excluded is the pornographic hard core – namely, whatever is left once erotic material with any artistic or scientific value has been redeemed. Another way of drawing the distinction between soft core and hard core is to class the former as the creative
representation
of sexual subject matter, using literary, graphic, photographic and filmic techniques; and the latter, as the direct
documentation
of sexual acts, which by definition is confined to photography and especially to the moving image. There is, in short, no universally accepted way of defining either term.
Positive Deviance
Authors: Heckert Druann Maria
Published: September 2017

The substantive area of deviance has focused on the negative and consequently positive deviance is an important and not yet fully tapped concept. Specifically, positive deviance suggests overconforming behavior that has been positively evaluated. While positive deviance has been marginalized, theoretical explanations are beginning to emerge. Furthermore, some recent studies have provided empirical examination of positive deviants.
Postcolonialism and Sport
Authors: King C. Richard
Published: September 2017

Although subject to much conceptual and political debate, postcolonialism simultaneously refers to a range of sociohistorical conditions associated with empire, its aftermath, and reconfiguration, and a set of theories designed to question the naturalness of the categories and practices central to such contexts. Significantly, both have implications for the sociology of sport, because athletics almost invariably has animated colonial cultures.
Post‐Industrial Society
Authors: Smith Michael R.
Published: September 2017

From its beginnings sociology has used evolutionary typologies. The industrial capitalism of the nineteenth century provided the background and preoccupations for the writings of the principal early theorists. Consequently, much of the writing of Comte, Marx, Durkheim, and Weber was concerned to distinguish industrial capitalism from what preceded it. Key
dramatis personae
in their accounts, couched at varying levels of generality, were capitalists controlling ever larger enterprises, male manual workers and their trade unions, and the political instruments through which these competing groups expressed their interests. In one way or another, class conflict was present in the analyses of each. It was the core in Marx's analysis.
Postmodern Feminism
Authors: Wolff Kristina
Published: September 2017

Postmodern feminism is a body of scholarship that questions and rejects traditional essentialist practices, as established in and by modernity. The general premise of postmodern social theory is a rejection of the western ideal of establishing universal grand narratives as a means of understanding and explaining society. Postmodern theory directly challenges claims of a unified subject, which is then presented as representing an objective point of view, in essence, a “view from nowhere.” Postmodern theory and practices recognize differences, making room for all to contribute and thus having a “view from everywhere” and eliminating the practice of positing one way or one understanding as representing or being “truth.” The combination of postmodernist theory and feminism allows for a questioning of essentialist approaches within and outside of feminism, an expansion of feminist scholarship as well as contributing the lens of “gender” and other issues inherent to feminism to the body of postmodern scholarship.
Postmodern Social Theory
Authors: Ryan J. Michael
Published: September 2017

Postmodern social theory is a field which is both difficult to define and rejects being defined. It is, in fact, a field that struggles against definitions, against norms, against protocols. Instead, it seeks to deconstruct, decenter, and delegitimize scientific claims to universal truths. With these characteristics in mind, it is easy to understand why defining such a field would be a difficult, if not counterproductive, task. Various authors have sought to overcome this difficulty by relying on common characteristics of various postmodern theories, others have defined the field by those who work in it, and still others – particularly those who work in the field itself – have avoided any attempts to define it at all. Regardless of which of these approaches one takes, however, there is no denying that something called postmodern social theory was at one time a flourishing presence in sociology (and elsewhere). There is also little denying that that time has passed and that now postmodern social theory is little more than a memory of a past epoch in social thought. Despite this “death” of postmodern theory, however, its short life has had profound effects on the way social theorists do theory, and will, no doubt, continue to have such an effect for a long time to come.
Postmodernism
Authors: Albright Julie M.
Published: September 2017

Postmodernism is an orientation toward knowledge that encompasses a wide range of theories and theorists, drawing from the fields of philosophy, sociology, linguistics, and others. The word “postmodernism” may suggest an important historical shift (“after modernism”), but this is a misnomer, since the precepts of modernism are still alive and well.
Postnationalism
Authors: Berezin Mabel
Published: September 2017

Postnationalism as an analytic frame articulates with a hypothesized decline of the nation‐state in the face of globalization and reterritorialization (Berezin 2003; Ansell 2004). The increasing presence of immigrants on the territories of established nation‐states, particularly but not exclusively in Europe, has pushed the discussion of postnationalism to the forefront of social science research. Soysal (1994) describes immigrant organizations in six European nation‐states. Soysal identifies four types of “incorporation regimes” and argues that a new form of postnational citizenship has emerged that decouples territory from legal membership. Trans‐territorial membership is based upon human rights – the rights of persons as persons, rather than persons as citizens of nation‐states.
Postsocial
Authors: Knorr Cetina Karin
Published: September 2017

Postsocial theory attempts to develop an understanding of current changes of sociality and social forms. Human beings may by nature be social animals, but forms of sociality are nonetheless changing; the term postsocial refers to contemporary challenges to core concepts of human interaction and solidarity that point beyond a period of high social formation to one of more limited sociality and alternative forms of binding self and other. Postsocial analysis assumes that social principles and structures as we have known them in the past are emptying out in western societies and other elements and relationships are taking their place. It assumes that new forms of binding self and other arise from the increasing role non‐human objects play in a knowledge‐based society and consumer culture and from changes in the nature of objects and the structure of the self.
Poverty
Authors: Iceland John
Published: September 2017

While poverty generally refers to material deprivation, it is a multifaceted experience for those who are struggling to get by. It can certainly involve economic hardship, such as difficulty in paying food bills or living in housing in severe disrepair. For some, poverty means lacking some of the basic consumer items that their neighbors have, such as telephones and cars. The term poverty can be used to describe a lack of other types of goods, such as education or human rights.
Poverty and Free Trade
Authors: Henning Christoph
Published: September 2017

The relation of poverty and free trade is not obvious. Exactly for this reason it needs scientific clarification in order to be able to come to terms with it. From a sociological point of view, free trade is one of the cures of the poverty of nations, yet at the same time it must be named as one of the main sources of global poverty.
Power, Theories of
Authors: Thye Shane
Published: September 2017

In contemporary sociology, the term power is used in two distinct but interrelated ways. In the broadest usage, power refers to a
structural capacity
for an actor A to cause any change in the behavior of another actor B (Weber 1968). This meaning of power captures the potential for power to be exercised or not in social interaction. The second meaning refers to a
concrete event
in which one individual benefits at the expense of another. Modern theorists refer to such events as
power use
or
power exercise
. Importantly, both meanings imply that power is a relational phenomenon. Thus, theories of power take as their focus the relationship between two or more actors, and not the characteristics of actors themselves. Although the terms are sometimes conflated, power is theoretically distinct from other relational concepts such as
influence
(which is voluntarily accepted),
force
(wherein the target has no choice but to comply), and
authority
(which involves a request from a legitimate social position). French and Raven (1968) recognized these distinctions over four decades ago, and they remain useful today.
Practical Knowledge
Authors: Stehr Nico
Published: September 2017

The assertion about the unique “complexity” or the peculiarly intricate character of social phenomena has, at least within sociology, a long, venerable, and virtually uncontested tradition. The classical theorists make prominent and repeated reference to this attribute of the subject matter of sociology and the degree to which it complicates the development of sociological knowledge. More specifically, the complexity of social reality has, it is widely argued, a most inhibiting effect on the production of powerful
practical
social science knowledge.
Pragmatism
Authors: Elliott David L.
Published: September 2017

Pragmatism began in the United States of the 1870s, in the wake of the intellectual revolution touched off by Darwin, as a term for a method designed to clarify disputed, abstract intellectual concepts by defining them with reference to their concrete behavioral consequences. It later took on a broader meaning as the name for a comprehensive philosophical perspective which became widely known and influential from 1898 to its waning during the period of the Cold War. Nevertheless, the perspective continued to influence sociology throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty‐first, especially in the tradition of symbolic interaction.
Primary Groups
Authors: Elliott David L.
Published: September 2017

Cooley (1909) coined the term primary group to denote intimate, comparatively permanent, and solidary associations of mutually identifying persons, and a century of sociological research has increased our understanding of primary groups in their variety of forms and multifaceted, contingent functions. According to Cooley, primary groups are primary in the sense of providing the first and (because of the greater openness and pliability of children) the most important socialization. The most important examples he cited in this sense are the family, children's play‐groups, and the neighborhood or village community.
Privacy
Authors: Marx Gary T.
Published: September 2017

Privacy, like the weather, is much discussed, little understood, and difficult to control. It is a multidimensional concept with fluid and often ill‐defined, contested, and negotiated borders, depending on the context and the culture. Along with its oppositepublicity, it is nonetheless a cornerstone of modern society's ideas of the person and of democracy.
Pro‐Choice and Pro‐Life Movements
Authors: Weitz Tracy A. , Joffe Carole
Published: September 2017

Abortion is one of the most contested social issues in the US. Despite its recognized status as a polarizing force in politics, a relatively small number of sociologists have studied the social movements that sustain the abortion debate. As a result, the topic of abortion social movements, while widely written about by journalists, is often under‐theorized. The following review summarizes the study of movements supporting and opposing abortion rights as studied by sociologists and other social scientists, predominantly in the US, with some attention to the changing international dimensions of this debate.
Pro‐Choice and Pro‐Life Movements
Authors: Weitz Tracy A.
Published: September 2017

Abortion is one of the most contested social issues in the United States with three periods of high social movement activity: the physician anti‐abortion movement of the mid‐1800s, the abortion rights reform/repeal movement of the 1960s, and the post‐Roe v. WadeSupreme Court decision (410 US 113 in 1973). TheRoedecision served as the catalyst for the two modern social movements most identified with the issue of abortion: the “Pro‐life Movement” and the “Pro‐choice Movement.” The following review summarizes the study of movements supporting and opposing abortion rights as considered by sociologists and other social scientists, predominately in the United States with some attention to the changing international dimensions of this debate.
Professional Dominance in Medicine
Authors: Light Donald W.
Published: September 2017

Professional dominance is a theory about professionalization and a profession's relation to society that implies that this relationship is out of balance. It thus opens up issues of trust, exploitation of patients and society, suppression of competing groups, subordination of allied professions, and escalation of costs. The term is inherently less neutral than “professionalism” or the study of professions in society. It is largely used in literature on the medical profession in modern times.
Professions
Authors: Macdonald Keith
Published: September 2017

Professions have been of interest to all the main schools of sociology, both in their own right and in relation to such topics as capitalism, the state, social stratification, patriarchy, power, and knowledge.
Public Sphere
Authors: Delanty Gerard
Published: September 2017

The concept of the public sphere has become a key term in sociology since it was introduced by Jürgen Habermas as a sociologically pertinent concept. The public sphere refers to the space that exists in modern societies between the state and society. The notion of the public sphere has changed considerably since Habermas's conception. It is today generally seen as a plural condition: there is not one single or ideal public sphere, but many. The public sphere is the space of debates, democratization and the ongoing contestation of power.
Purdah
Authors: Ramji Hasmita
Published: September 2017

Purdah literally translated from its Persian origins means veil or curtain. It is a concept that is used as a synonym for social practices that isolate or separate different groups in society. Although purdah can refer to many different social practices of isolation, the term is most immediately associated with a practice of gender segregation in mostly although not exclusively Muslim societies.