bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Workplace Studies
Authors: Lehn Dirk vom
Published: September 2017

Workplace studies is a relatively new area of research that has emerged in light of the increasing sociological interest in the “object” and the growing interest in some of the technical and applied computer sciences in the social organization of work. Drawing on approaches and perspectives from the social and cognitive sciences and primarily using naturalistic data, such as ethnographic field observation and video recording workplace, studies explore the organization of work in work settings equipped with complex systems and technologies and in organizations whose operation often relies on the coordination of geographically distributed staff. Findings from this novel field of research contribute to sociological debates about work practice, cooperation, and distributed work. They also reinvigorate discussion about more general sociological concepts such as “interaction” and “organization” that have been challenged by recent technological developments offering opportunities for distributed and virtual social relationships. Aside from these academic contributions workplace studies also offer sociologists opportunities to engage with technology developers and designers and to become involved in the design and deployment of new systems and technologies.
Sport Identities
Authors: Weiss Otmar
Published: September 2017

“Who am I?” is the question that defines identity. In modern society, the answer is becoming increasingly important. The area of sport is no exception, but there is in sport a distinct feature that sets it apart from other areas of life – unity of action and representation. This entry analyzes this special dimension of sport identities in the context of recent studies. Sport has a special potential for identity formation, which leads more and more people to develop a sport identity in addition to their family identity, religious identity, and so on. Involvement in sport serves to fulfill the basic human need for social recognition or identity reinforcement.
I
nternet Surveys
Authors: Petersen James C. , Farrell Dan
Published: September 2017

Internet surveys, while a rather recent development, have taken advantage of earlier work on self‐administered surveys and computer‐assisted interviewing. They have great flexibility in presenting questionnaires and can make use of color, sound, graphics, videos, and animation. The speed with which Internet surveys can be conducted and their low cost have made this approach to surveys very attractive to commercial survey organizations and pollsters and, increasingly, to scholars. For academics, the inability to draw probability samples of the general public, coverage issues, and the self‐selection of survey participants have been especially problematic. Weighting to adjust for undercoverage or overcoverage, conducting mixed mode surveys, and creating probability‐based Web panels are among the approaches used to deal with the limitations of Internet surveys.
Online Research Methods
Authors: Petersen James C. , Farrell Dan
Published: September 2017

Many new opportunities for social researchers have developed as a result of the rapid expansion of global access to the Internet and the growth of online activities including social networking, blogs, surveys, gaming, and online communities. The ability to conveniently collect large amounts of data at low cost makes online research very attractive. Some forms of online data provide opportunities for unobtrusive research. A limitation of much online data, however, is that variables needed for theory‐driven research may be absent. Online research poses challenges to our existing approaches to obtaining informed consent and providing confidentiality, and raises additional concerns over privacy and the use of deception. Social researchers have demonstrated the ability to analyze data from social media sites, carry out ethnographic studies of virtual worlds, execute online experiments, conduct focus groups, and use the Internet to conduct surveys.
War Crimes
Authors: Murphy Ray
Published: September 2017

War crimes come under the general umbrella of international humanitarian law (IHL), and may be defined as the branch of international law limiting the use of violence in armed conflicts. War crimes constitute serious violations of treaty or customary rules of IHL. The primary aim of IHL is to establish limits to the means and methods of armed conflict, and to protect noncombatants, whether they are wounded, sick, or captured soldiers or civilians. Although war crimes are usually committed by military personnel, they may also be perpetrated by civilians, and all categories of persons may be held criminally liable for violations of the rules of war. A war crime must have a sufficient link to an armed conflict and be closely related to the hostilities taking place.
Nonviolence
Authors: Brewer John David
Published: September 2017

Nonviolence is a catchall term to describe many types of behaviour, conduct, and attitude, all of which share, however, the principled commitment to least harm, noninjury, and nonviolence in the pursuit of personal and sociopolitical goals. It is mostly the method of the weak, but is an effective response to oppression, injustice, and unfairness when powerlessness or moral values prevent the recourse to violence.
Ferguson,Adam (1723–1816)
Authors: Smith Craig
Published: September 2017

Adam Ferguson (1723–1816) was a leading member of the Scottish Enlightenment and a close friend of Adam Smith and David Hume. His most famous book,An Essay on the History of Civil Society(1767), is widely recognized as one of the foundational texts of the sociological tradition and has proved influential on social theorists as diverse as Hegel, Marx, and F.A. Hayek. Ferguson's contribution to the development of sociology lay in his stress on the importance of empirically grounded theory focused on social‐level explanation, his recognition of natural sociability and the importance of socialization, and his focus on the significance of unintended consequences for the evolution of civil society. His analysis of the negative effects of the division of labor prefigured later arguments about alienation, and his analysis of warfare and social cohesion anticipated conflict sociology.
Embodied Knowledge
Authors: Moore Lisa Jean , Mathias Jeffrey
Published: September 2017

Embodied knowledge is forms of knowledge about the world that acknowledge and embrace knowledge's point of origin: the body. Embodiment is the quality of having a body and perceiving and being in the world through the body. “The body” refers to the locus of identity and social structure, the integral link between individuals and broader historical and social processes. However, bodies are not merely or only texts or performances, but rather are material: flesh and bone, histories and entanglements, suffering and illness, capabilities and desires, life and death. As social objects imbued with a kind of thingness, bodies are enacted in and through social relations while also retaining a corporeal agenda of their own. Embodied knowledge thus necessarily and deliberately exists at the meeting point of social structures and materiality, between power and lived experience.
AsiaBarometer
Authors: Inoguchi Takashi
Published: September 2017

AsiaBarometer is a large‐scale, comprehensive, and comparative quality of life survey on Asia based on nationwide random sampling and face‐to‐face interviewing. It covers 29 Asian societies and three western societies adjacent to Asia. Among the substantive findings are that there are five types of Asian societies and three key dimensions of Asian social capital, and that happiness is related to wealth, religion, and community.
Low Culture and High Culture
Authors: Hanquinet Laurie
Published: September 2017

The distinction between low culture and high culture has been one of the major sociological issues over the last century in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world. Discussions on this topic over the years have reflected different positions on the existence and the nature of cultural hierarchies. This entry discusses the emergence of the distinction between low culture and high culture, and the related adjectives of “lowbrow” and “highbrow”; the links between low, mass, and popular cultures; class‐based approaches to taste and cultural forms; the rise of omnivorousness; and new developments in the study of cultural classifications. It shows that the ongoing sociological debate mirrors much wider social implications in terms of the definition of culture, the symbolic value it gives to the supporters and detractors of its different forms, and the ways in which it organizes society.
Brand Communities
Authors: Cova Bernard
Published: September 2017

A brand community is a coconsuming group of people who have a common interest in a specific brand and create a parallel social universe, nongeographically bound, that abounds with its own myths, values, rituals, vocabulary, and hierarchy. Brand enthusiasts play a dynamic role by cocreating experiences for themselves, for brand communities, and for organizations. Such brand volunteers are committed to providing unpaid work for the exclusive benefit of the brand they love. On a sociological level, brand communities herald new forms of collectives emerging in contemporary society: rather than communities creating symbols, they form around symbols.
Communitarianism
Authors: Etzioni Amitai
Published: September 2017

The essence of communitarianism is that there are social definitions of good, and not merely those chosen by individuals, and that community is essential to human well‐being. All societies need to balance individual rights and social responsibilities. A major sector, often overlooked in the debate between the advocates of the private sector and the public (governmental) one, is the civil society. It encompasses millions of families, residential, ethnic, and professional communities, places of worship, and not‐for‐profit corporations.
Conspicuous Leisure
Authors: Scott David
Published: September 2017

Conspicuous leisure refers to those behaviors, pursued during nonwork time, that provide tangible evidence of status. The term was coined by Thorstein Veblen in his classic book,
The Theory of the Leisure Class
. Veblen argued that humans are hardwired to seek favorable comparisons with others, and conspicuous leisure is one way in which people display status. Conspicuous leisure was a hallmark of members of the leisure class who regarded work and toil as debasing. Examples of conspicuous leisure include knowledge of dead languages, music, manners, proprieties of dress, games and sports, and fancy‐bred animals.
Community of Fate
Authors: Baehr Peter
Published: September 2017

Although class cleavage and power struggles divide societies into opposing interests, a society of any longevity also possesses a common stock of cultural resources – language, traditions, and collective memories of belonging and past suffering – that enable it to cohere as a distinctive collective entity. Community of fate draws on this fact to depict the bases of enduring social recognition, the ability of states to coerce citizens to fight and face the prospect of death for their political community, and the success or failure of mass emergency response. This entry traces the history of the community of fate in sociological thinking, and identifies its modern scientific and propagandist applications.
Social Closure
Authors: Baehr Peter
Published: September 2017

A concept that originated with Max Weber, social closure depicts multiple sources of social privilege, strategies of social exclusion, and counterstrategies of usurpation. Social closure broadly belongs to theories of social conflict and stratification. Its originality consists in demonstrating that the ownership of means of production (as in Marxist theory) is only one basis of structured and purposive inequality.
Public Sociology
Authors: Nyden Philip W.
Published: September 2017

Michael Burawoy popularized the term “public sociology.” He defines it as bringing sociology to publics outside the academy, and promoting dialogue about issues critical to all sectors of society. His 2004 American Sociological Association presidential speech was a call to sociologists for increased engagement with broader audiences. Burawoy was not inventing a new kind of sociology, but, rather, underscoring a long tradition of community‐engaged and policy research going back decades. There are two undercurrents in public sociology. The first is about how sociological research gets into the hands of the public outside of the discipline. The second is about how sociological knowledge is produced. “Traditional” public sociologists may communicate but not necessarily interact with publics, for example, through research reports, op‐ed pieces, or expert testimony. “Organic” public sociologists work in concert with local communities, organizations, and social movements in coproducing knowledge.
Climate Change
Authors: Riedy Chris
Published: September 2017

In the period since the Industrial Revolution, human emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and agricultural practices have led to global warming and climate change. Observed and anticipated changes in the climate include higher temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns, changes in the frequency and distribution of weather events such as droughts, storms, floods and heat waves, sea level rise and consequent impacts on human and natural systems. Many scientists argue that the impacts of climate change will be devastating for natural and human systems, and that climate change poses an existential threat to human civilization. However, action to respond to climate change has been slow. Climate change draws attention to the relationship between science and society, challenges global governance institutions, and triggers new social movements. Engagement with climate change by social scientists is prompting conceptual renewal in areas such as social practice theory, and transition and transformation studies.
F
ei
H
siaotung (1910–2005)
Authors: So Alvin Y.
Published: September 2017

Fei Hsiaotung was China's pre‐eminent sociologist and anthropologist. As a world‐renowned researcher, he was noted for his studies of rural China, the Chinese peasant economy, and China's ethnic groups, and was often labeled as the “plaintiff for the Chinese peasants.” His works on these subjects were instrumental in laying a solid foundation for the development of sociological and anthropological studies in China.
Postcarbon Sociology
Authors: Kharlamov Nikita A.
Published: September 2017

Postcarbon sociology, a concept introduced by John Urry, is a social science that takes into account the constitutive role of resources in social life and, specifically, the way in which modernity has been constituted through dependence on fossil fuels, especially oil. It also involves developing scenarios of possible future societies in the context of peak oil and other catastrophic events. Postcarbon sociology is part of a broader reorientation of social sciences toward the materiality of the social world.
Migration and Health
Authors: VanLandingham Mark , Zhang Mengxi
Published: September 2017

Demographers and other social scientists have investigated a wide range of impacts that migration has upon sending and receiving communities, families, and the migrants themselves, but there has been little systematic investigation of migration's impacts on health. In this entry we explore the potential pathways through which migration can affect health outcomes; discuss four major dimensions of health for which migration's impacts have been investigated; and conclude with some major challenges facing researchers who seek to study the relationships between migration and health.
Laboratory Experiments
Authors: Webster, Murray , Sell Jane
Published: September 2017

This entry defines laboratory experiments, describes their historical context, and contrasts them with other research designs. Small groups and group processes research traditions have produced the bulk of experimental research in sociology. Useful experiments are appropriate to the research questions, test explicit theories, and provide clear data. Ethical considerations include care for participants' welfare, minimizing deception, fully explaining important aspects of the experiment afterward, and answering any questions. The entry offers guides to good design, including careful operationalization of concepts, strong instantiation, clear instructions, random assignment to conditions, and pretesting.
Chi Square Test
Authors: Delorme Nicolas
Published: September 2017

The chi square test is a nonparametrical statistical test used to determine whether there is a significant difference between observed frequencies and expected frequencies in one or more categories. The aim is to assess whether the difference between the observed and the expected frequencies is due to sampling variation or represents a real difference. Karl Pearson's chi square tests are used to assess three type of comparison: tests of goodness of fit, tests of independence, and tests of homogeneity. The difference between these three types of comparison lies in the situations for which each type should be used.
Development
Authors: Barbera Filippo
Published: September 2017

In sociology, the concept of development has two main strands, social change and progress, both derived from the social and intellectual contexts that shaped the discipline between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They mutually account for the reflexive nature of sociology, linking sociological knowledge to the core features of society. The problem of development has dealt with a wide series of topics, empirical phenomena, and analytical dimensions; its conceptualization has gone through important changes over time and its measurement is controversial. The sociological analysis of development relies on different conceptions of the phenomena, supports several level of analysis, and suggests alternative measurement solutions. This plurality does not preclude important convergences that explain development results and processes. Facing today's challenges, the concept of development confirms its reflexive nature in linking sociological knowledge to the key features of society.
L
yotard,
J
ean‐
F
rançois (1924–1998)
Authors: Taylor Victor E.
Published: September 2017

Jean‐François Lyotard's contributions to the study of transdisciplinary postmodernism were shaped by his intellectual engagement with and critique of Enlightenment philosophy, especially Immanuel Kant's aesthetics. His refinement of postmodernism, as a major philosophical concept, also included substantial research in the areas of politics and ethics.
Neighborhoods
Authors: Castrignanò Marco , Landi Alessandra
Published: September 2017

A centerpiece of sociological analysis, neighborhoods play a fundamental role in social life since they represent one of the smallest forms of social organization outside the family. Despite the variety of definitions over time, the concept of neighborhood always has a territorial basis and refers to the social relations that develop on that territorial basis. Studies on neighborhood have increased significantly since the mid‐1990s, often focusing on neighborhood effect as a key variable in the study of social phenomena such as poverty, deviance, and social exclusion. The Chicago School has always been an important reference for scholars interested in studies of the neighborhood, and recently Chicago‐style inquiry has been revived and updated by Robert Sampson in the neighborhood approach, which proposes an ecological perspective focused on the analysis of the sociospatial organization of the neighborhood. The concept of collective efficacy plays a major role in Sampson's approach.
Race and Greek Life
Authors: Cox Jonathan M.
Published: September 2017

When it comes to race and Greek life, the research overwhelmingly addresses black Greek‐letter organizations (GLOs), and even this is relatively paltry when compared to the overall literature on white organizations. Because of historical exclusionary practices, racial and ethnic minorities have largely created and maintained their own identity‐based fraternities and sororities, despite white GLOs opening up to people of color in recent decades. Little research currently addresses race in meaningful ways for white GLOs, in particular ignoring how these groups often perpetuate racial segregation. Most research on black, Latino, and Asian American GLOs is very limited in scope and breadth. Future research needs to address this dearth, as well as to seek to explore new and existing issues of race within GLOs, such as growing multicultural organizations.
Crime, Race
Authors: Hansen Laura L.
Published: September 2017

There are key controversies associated with the correlations between race and crime. Commonly overlooked are the variables of poverty, poor school performance, and family disorganization. Any discussion of race has to include an examination of the history of racism, colonialism, and expansionism. Additionally, public perceptions and opinions should be discussed to include topics of community self‐efficacy, law enforcement responses, including racial profiling, and the rise of zero tolerance policies in public schools leading to the “school to prison” pipeline. Theories to consider are labeling theory and Merton's strain theory, along with Durkheim's discourse of mechanical versus organic society.
Race and Physical Health
Authors: Cummings Jason L.
Published: September 2017

On the heels of technological advances, improvements in preventive medicine and broader access to healthcare, Americans are living longer and are generally healthier today than ever before. Despite such progress, however, racial and ethnic differentials in health persist and, in some cases, have actually increased. A major challenge that confronts health scholars and policy‐makers today is gauging the scope of racial/ethnic disparities in health and illness, and understanding the unique social, behavioral, and institutional factors that shape them. Compared to whites, African Americans experience higher mortality, shorter life expectancies, worse self‐reported health, and greater prevalence of a range of chronic illnesses and conditions including diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Many of these disparities in health are related to black–white differences in socioeconomic status, residential disadvantage, racism/discrimination, individual behaviors, and institutional barriers in healthcare.
Queer Criminology
Authors: Tomsen Stephen
Published: September 2017

Queer criminology entails the application of “queer” perspectives to critique definitions and practices of criminality, criminalization, and punishment, in relation to sexual and gender nonconformity. In the 1990s this approach began with a focus on violence and hate crime, the decriminalization of antihomosexual laws, and the development of liberal legal rights and protections. Since the early 2000s, the subdiscipline has expanded with new research on a range of topic areas including global criminal justice discrimination against LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) people, and a broader stress on minority inclusion.
Abortion as a Social Problem
Authors: Dillon Michele
Published: September 2017

Abortion has been legal in the United States and in most Western European countries since the early 1970s. In 2013, following years of protracted debate and minor changes in access to abortion, the Republic of Ireland legalized abortion in cases where the woman's life is threatened (including from the risk of suicide). Meanwhile, in Spain, a government proposal to restrict abortion encountered widespread public opposition. Restrictions on abortion have been imposed in some Eastern European countries, most notably Poland, where prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union abortion was both legal and prevalent. Currently, Malta is the only country in the European Union that completely bans abortion.
Absenteeism
Authors: Johns Gary
Published: September 2017

Absenteeism is failing to report for scheduled work. As such, it is the violation of a social obligation to be in a particular place at a particular time (Johns 1997; Harrison & Martocchio 1998). Traditionally, absenteeism was viewed as an indicator of poor individual performance and a breach of an implicit contract between employee and employer. Thus, it was seen as a management problem and framed in economic or quasi‐economic terms. Indeed, economists most frequently view absenteeism in labor supply terms. More recently, absenteeism has increasingly been viewed as an indicator of psychological, medical, or social adjustment to work.
Addams, Jane (1860–1935)
Authors: Jo Deegan Mary
Published: September 2017

Feminist pragmatist, social settlement leader, and Nobel Laureate, Jane Addams was a charismatic world leader with an innovative intellectual legacy in sociology. She is one of the most important female sociologists who ever lived. From 1890 to 1935, she led dozens of women in sociology, although after 1920 most of these women were forced out of sociology and into other fields such as social work, home economics, applied psychology, pedagogy, and college administration.
Agency (and Intention)
Authors: Fuchs Stephan
Published: September 2017

Agency is a fundamental and foundational category and puzzle in virtually all social sciences and humanities. Debates over agency have emerged together with these fields, and continue unabated into the present time, with no resolution or consensus in sight. While many agree that agency, action, and actor are basic in some sense, controversies persist over the definition, range, and explanatory status of these concepts. In addition, agency is contested because it connects to core questions in metaphysics, philosophy, and ethics, such as free will, moral responsibility, personhood, and subjective rights. Agency is tied to the legacy of liberal humanism that is part of the core of democratic citizenship.
Aging, Demography of
Authors: Longino Charles F. , Wilmoth Janet
Published: September 2017

Demography is the scientific study of human populations. Its origins are as old as those of science. The demography of aging, on the other hand, did not begin to emerge as a distinct subfield until the second half of the twentieth century, when low fertility and mortality rates were creating dramatic shifts in the age structure of developed countries. In 1980, Jacob Siegel devoted his presidential address to the Population Association of America to the topic of demography of aging, which he declared “brings demographers to focus holistically on a population group, the elderly, and a demographic process, aging” (1980: 345).
Aging and Health Policy
Authors: Quadagno Jill , Harris Brandy D.
Published: September 2017

In many nations, people 65 and older are the fastest growing segment of the population, with the most rapid growth occurring among the oldest‐old: individuals aged 85 and older. Illness and disability are not an inevitable component of advancing age. Many people remain in good health into very old age, and early diagnoses and treatment of conditions associated with aging combined with healthy lifestyle choices can mitigate the effects of age‐related diseases and conditions. Nonetheless, population aging raises critical health policy issues because the elderly have more hospitalizations and more chronic conditions than younger people and use more prescription drugs and medical services (Solomon 1999).
Aging and Social Policy
Authors: Street Debra
Published: September 2017

All developed countries have social policies designed to meet income, health, and social needs of older citizens. Most less‐developed countries, too, have at least some public programs explicitly designed to serve elderly people. While the particulars of such policies differ from place to place, social policies for aging populations have in common collective national efforts to improve health and income security for older people. The scope and breadth of such social policies is an important influence on the overall well‐being of each country's elderly citizens. From a sociological perspective, both country‐specific and comparative social policy research have focused on understanding how different configurations of social policies create outcomes that minimize, reinforce, or exacerbate late‐life inequalities arising from social class, race or ethnicity, and gender. Besides analyzing how these status categories influence inequality, sociologists also research and theorize how the interplay of institutionalized life courses and social policies contributes to age stratification.
Aging, Sociology of
Authors: George Linda K.
Published: September 2017

The sociology of aging is both broad and deep. The breadth of the field can be highlighted in several ways. First, the sociology of aging encompasses investigations of aging as a process, of older adults as a group, and of old age as a distinctive stage of the life course. Second, aging research is performed at multiple levels of analysis, from macro‐level studies of age structure within and across societies, to meso‐level studies of labor‐force participation and family structure, to micro‐level investigations of health and well‐being. Third, aging research uses the full repertoire of methods that characterize the discipline, including life tables and other demographic methods, survey research, ethnographic methods, and observational studies. The depth of the field results from the accumulation of scientific studies that now span more than three‐quarters of a century.
AIDS
, Sociology of
Authors: Kippax Susan
Published: September 2017

Until biomedicine develops an effective vaccine for HIV, the world will continue to depend on the people most affected to reduce the risk of HIV transmission to themselves and others and, if living with HIV, to be treated. Though not a cure, anti‐retroviral therapy has dramatically reduced the number of AIDS deaths. HIV prevalence has increased, in part due to this reduction in the number of deaths, while HIV incidence, though declining, remains high. HIV is transmitted by social practices—sexual and drug injection practices—which are shaped by culture. Evidence from many countries has demonstrated that transforming these practices to reduce HIV transmission is dependent on the collective actions of people, as members of communities and networks, enabled and supported by governments and international bodies and donors. A social public health in which biomedical and social scientists work together is essential to combat HIV.
Alcohol and Crime
Authors: Sung Hung‐En
Published: September 2017

Alcohol is the most widely abused psychoactive substance in the United States. It is the only legally available non‐prescription addictive drug that dangerously alters the mind and behavior. The term “alcohol‐related crime” refers to violations of laws regulating the sale or use of alcohol and also covers other criminal activities that involve alcohol.
Althusser, Louis (1918–1990)
Authors: Tucker Kenneth H.
Published: September 2017

Louis Althusser was a French Marxist philosopher, best known for his structuralist reinterpretation of Marxism in the 1960s. He was also important as a strong intellectual influence on many of the poststructuralist authors such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, and Jacques Derrida, who became central figures in social scientific and literary studies in Europe and the US in the 1970s.
American Dilemma, an
(Gunnar Myrdal)
Authors: Kivisto Peter
Published: September 2017

In 1944 the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal published a monumental study on the social conditions of African Americans. Encyclopedic in its effort to cover all aspects of black life,
An American Dilemma
was a volume of over 1,000 pages that included analyses of major demographic, political, economic, and cultural forces that shaped the black experience in the United States. Furthermore, it provided extended discussions of social inequality and social stratification and the persistent role of prejudice and discrimination. It examined the institutional structure of the black community, including an analysis of patterns of leadership and prospects for collective action aimed at redressing a long legacy of racial hostility and oppression. After presenting a vast body of data regarding the past and present circumstances of blacks, Myrdal provided tempered, but nonetheless generally optimistic conclusions about the future.
Annales School
Authors: Hall John R.
Published: September 2017

The group of interdisciplinary historians that emerged in France in the first quarter of the twentieth century became known as a school named for the journal that Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre started in 1929 –
Annales de l'histoire économique et sociale
, now called
Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales
. Annales historians have been eclectic in their methods and topics. Their shared perspective (1) subordinates traditional narrative history centered on political, military, and religious elites (e.g., the “scientific history” of the nineteenth‐century German Leopold von Ranke) and (2) embraces wide‐ranging sources of data and social science methodologies and theories. The diverse results of their scholarship are a testament to the power of colleagues, mentors, and students encouraging one another in manifold interdisciplinary inquiries, even on topics sometimes alien to their own.
Anomie
Authors: Deflem Mathieu
Published: September 2017

Anomie refers to the lack or ineffectiveness of normative regulation in society. The concept was first introduced in sociology by Émile Durkheim (1893) in his study on the social dimensions of the division of labor. Contrary to Marx, Durkheim argued that the division of labor is not problematic as long as it is sufficiently regulated. However, under exceptional circumstances, Durkheim maintained, the division of labor will take on an anomic form, either because there is a lack of regulation or because the level of regulation does not match the degree of development of the division of labor. Durkheim saw such anomic forms present during periods of industrial crises, in the conflict between labor and capital, and in the lack of unity and excessive degree of specialization in the sciences.
Anthropology, Cultural and Social: Early History
Authors: Weiler Bernd
Published: September 2017

The traditional subject matter of anthropology (from the Greekanthropos, human being, andlog‐, study of) has been the study of non‐western, “exotic,” and “nonliterate” peoples. As in other social sciences and humanities, the beginnings of western anthropology go back to Greco‐Roman antiquity. It was in the wake of the Greek colonization of the Mediterranean world, commencing around 750bce, that questions arose regarding the history, the inhabitants, and the fauna and flora of the newly discovered lands. This intellectual interest reached its first peak in the works of Hecataeus of Miletus (ca. 550–490bce) and Herodotus of Halicarnassus (ca. 480–425bce), often considered the “fathers” of western ethnography, and eventually led to a well‐developed body of doctrines that constitutes the classical heritage of anthropology (Müller 1980; Lovejoy & Boas 1997).
Anti‐Semitism (Social Change)
Authors: Brustein William I.
Published: September 2017

To account for the rise of anti‐Semitism in the west in the modern period we can turn to the evolution and popularization of its four principal roots. The four roots – religious, racial, economic, and political – contain four distinct anti‐Semitic narratives, each of which entailed its own set of themes depicting Jewish malfeasance. Anti‐Semitism in the years prior to 1870 was characterized by a dislike based primarily on religious differences and perceived Jewish economic practices. After 1870, both religious and economic anti‐Semitism continued – albeit with new themes – and were joined by the rising racial and political strains.
Apartheid and Nelson Mandela
Authors: Moodley Kogila , Adam Kanya
Published: September 2017

Apartheid is a uniquely South African policy of racial engineering with which European colonizers tried to ensure their supremacy between 1948 and 1994. Invented by the Afrikaner section of the minority white population, it also aimed at advancing exclusive Afrikaner nationalism. Prior to the institutionalized racialism, Anglo‐type informal segregation had achieved similar effects, although racial mixing and miscegenation was widespread in a rapidly industrializing society. The apartheid ideology, strongly influenced by evolutionist, hierarchical, and racial supremacist ideas, justified the formal separation between racialized groups in South Africa. The Afrikaner Nationalist Party, particularly under its leader Hendrik Verwoerd, systematized these practices into a coherent doctrine. Afrikaner newspapers, such asDie Burger, preachers, and intellectuals used the suppression of the Afrikaans language by the assimilationist United Party as a mobilizing tool, subsequently supplemented with a program of capital accumulation (“buy Afrikaans only”) for fledgling Afrikaner building societies and banks.
Arcades
Authors: Hayward Keith
Published: September 2017

Originating in Paris in the 1820s, arcades were decorative passages or walkways through blocks of buildings. Typically glass‐roofed and supported by ornate ironwork columns, arcades served as a form of interior street; a site of conspicuous consumption for the wealthy, and a place of marvel and spectacle for the poor. Hemmed in by antique shops, concession stands, and an eclectic array of emporia, arcade shop fronts offered the observer a chaotic visual experience of illuminated shop‐signs,
objets d'art
, and a cornucopia of commodities and artifacts from around the world. In sociological terms, the importance of the Parisian arcades lies in their purported role as progenitor of modern consumerism and more tangentially as a prototype of the contemporary shopping mall.
Arendt, Hannah (1906–1975)
Authors: Murphy Peter
Published: September 2017

Hannah Arendt was born in Hannover and grew up in an assimilated German‐Jewish social democratic household in Königsberg, then East Prussia, today Kalliningrad in Russia. She attended university (1924–8), completing a year at Marburg where her teacher, and briefly her lover, was Martin Heidegger; a semester at Freiburg with Edmund Husserl; and then on to Heidelberg to complete a doctoral dissertation under Karl Jaspers. Arendt had a gift for friendship. She remained close to Jaspers all her life. She even maintained a tense contact with Heidegger after the war, despite his embrace of Nazism. After university, Arendt lived in Berlin and married the leftist philosopher Günter Stern (pen‐name Anders) in 1929, fleeing Nazi Germany for France in 1933, divorcing Stern in 1937. She worked in Paris for Jewish relief organizations and became acquainted with the rising French intellectuals of the day (Aron, Sartre), as well as Jewish intellectual émigrés such as Walter Benjamin, whose manuscripts she carried from France and edited (in 1968) after Benjamin's suicide. She met her second husband, the Berliner and communist Heinrich Blücher, in 1936. In 1940, Blücher and Arendt fled Nazi‐occupied France for the US, finally arriving in 1941 in New York, the city that would be her home for the rest of her life. She became a US citizen in 1951.
Aron, Raymond (1905–83)
Authors: Sekulic Dusko
Published: September 2017

Raymond Aron was a French sociologist, philosopher, political actor, and commentator. Before World War II, he lectured at several French universities, including Le Havre and Bordeaux. In 1930 he defended his doctoral thesis,
Introduction to the Philosophy of History
, which was published as a book and widely reviewed in Europe and the United States. After graduating, he spent the period 1930–3 in Germany and observed the rise to power of National Socialism. In 1935 he published
German Sociology
, in which he made the distinction between “systematic” and “historical” sociology. Systematic sociology was concerned with “fundamental social relations, types of social groups [and] the static structure of society,” while historical sociology focused on the “laws, or at least the theory, of the development of the bourgeois society” (Aron 1957 [1935]: 2).
Aron, Raymond (1905–1983)
Authors: Sekulic Dusko
Published: September 2017

Raymond Aron (1905–1983) was a French sociologist, philosopher, political actor, and commentator. Before World War II, he lectured in several French universities (Le Havre, Bordeaux, Toulouse). In 1938, he defended his doctoral thesis
Introduction to the Philosophy of History
, which was published as a book and widely reviewed in Europe and the United States. After graduating, he spent the years from 1930 to 1933 in Germany and observed the rise of National Socialism. In 1935, he published
German Sociology
in which he made the distinction between “systematic” and “historical” sociology. Systematic sociology was concerned with “fundamental social relations, types of social groups [and] the static structure of society,” while historical sociology focused on the “laws, or at least the theory, of the development of the bourgeois society” (Aron, 1957 [1935]: 2).
Asch Experiments
Authors: Kinney William J.
Published: September 2017

Solomon Asch (1907–1996) conducted pioneering social psychological experiments on conformity in group settings and on the processes by which we form impressions of other people. His conformity experiments are of particular importance, in that they displayed how the desire to conform to social pressures may be so great that it over‐rides our own perceptions. Asch emigrated from Poland to the United States in 1920, completed a PhD at Columbia University in 1932, and worked for 19 years as a faculty member at Swarthmore College. In addition to his seminal research on conformity and person perception, he wrote the classic text
Social Psychology
(Asch, 1952). This text had a profound impact on the early development of the field.
Attribution Theory
Authors: Badahdah Abdallah M.
Published: September 2017

In the 1970s attribution research became a dominant force in the field of social psychology. There is no one theory of attribution; rather, several perspectives are collectively referred to as attribution theory. Attribution theory explains how perceivers explain human behaviors by inferring the causes of those behaviors.
Auditing
Authors: Schwandt Thomas A.
Published: September 2017

The notion of auditing is associated with social science methodology and with social theory. Generally defined, auditing is a procedure whereby an independent third party systematically examines the evidence of adherence of some practice to a set of norms or standards for that practice and issues a professional opinion. Thus, for example, financial auditors examine a corporation's financial statements against a set of standards for generally accepted accounting practices and issue a professional opinion (called an attestation) as to the dependability, integrity, and veracity of those statements. This general idea has been borrowed from the discipline of accounting and adopted in discussions of social science method. An auditing procedure has been suggested as a means to verify the dependability (cf. reliability) and confirmability (cf. warrantability) of claims made in a qualitative study (Lincoln & Guba 1985; Schwandt & Halpern 1989). The researcher is advised to maintain an audit trail (a systematically organized documentation system) of evidence including the data, processes, and product (claims, findings) of the inquiry. A third‐party inquirer then examines that audit trail to attest to the appropriateness, integrity, and dependability of the inquiry process and the extent to which claims made are reasonably grounded in the data.
Author/Auteur
Authors: Simmons Laurence
Published: September 2017

The concept of authorship seemed uncomplicated, or was at least unexplored, until the second half of the twentieth century, since when it has become the site of much theoretical discussion. Modern literary criticism has not simply underwritten the authority of authors. The American New Critics of the 1930s and 1940s, Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren in their
Understanding Poetry
(1938), ruled out the study of biographical materials as a substitute for study of the literary text itself. They raised the issue of whether the reconstruction of an author's intention from the text was at all possible, and, if possible, whether it is even relevant. Soon after, in a famous essay entitled “The Intentional Fallacy” (1954), the American critics William Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley forbade critics to refer to authorial intentions in the analysis of literature, arguing that the literary work itself contained all the information necessary for its understanding, and that appeals to authorial intention or biography (disparaged as “Shakespeare's laundry list”) were at best irrelevant, at worst downright misleading.
Authority and Legitimacy
Authors: Turner Stephen
Published: September 2017

Authority is often defined as legitimate power, and contrasted to pure power. In the case of legitimate authority, compliance is voluntary and based on a belief in the right of the authority to demand compliance. In the case of pure power, compliance to the demands of the powerful is based on fear of consequences or self‐interest. But beyond this, there is considerable disagreement and variation of usage. Because legitimacy is a concept from monarchic rule, deriving from the right of the legitimately born heir to rule as monarch, authors as diverse as Hannah Arendt and Carl Schmitt have argued that it is not applicable to modern politics. But it is nevertheless commonly applied, even in ordinary political discussion, to many situations, such as voluntary compliance to taxation, that go far beyond the original meaning.
Autopoiesis
Authors: Zinn Jens
Published: September 2017

The neurobiologists Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela introduced the term
autopoiesis
in the 1970s in order to describe how living systems (e.g., human, plant, cell, or microbe) produce and reproduce themselves. Combining the idea of autonomy and production, autopoiesis means in short the continual self‐production of living systems. The components of an autopoietic system reproduce themselves and the relations between them by these components and relations (Maturana et al. 1974; Maturana & Varela 1987). It is therefore operationally closed: the system determines the rules of reproduction relatively independently of its specific environment.
Authenticity
Authors: Hoffberg Matthew
Published: September 2017

In sociological social psychology, authenticity refers to a felt sense of alignment with one's “true” self. Anthropologists, literary historians, and other cultural observers have noted that authenticity is predominantly a Western ideal whose importance escalated in concert with the rise of individualism from the late nineteenth century into the present. In Durkheimian terms, the need to understand one's place in the larger social order became particularly salient with the increased division of labor and rise of organic solidarity during this period. Among others, the philosopher Charles Taylor has argued that concern over authenticity has shifted from a byproduct of modernity to become a goal in and of itself.