bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Optional Ethnicity
Authors: Karam Rebecca A.
Published: December 2017

Optional ethnicity, meaning the ability of some third‐ and fourth‐generation Americans to maintain voluntarily an ethnic identity, was first introduced by sociologist Mary C. Waters in 1990. Her work builds on Herbert Gans's foundational theory of symbolic ethnicity. Contemporary scholars continue to assess the idea of optional ethnicity by testing its applicability to America's “new” second generation and beyond.
Organization Theory
Authors: Hage Jerald
Published: December 2017

Organizational theory moved beyond Weber's bureaucratic model with the discovery of the organic form designed to provide customized innovative products in the early 1960s. Since then, contingency theory has emphasized the importance of not only different market contexts but also the input variables of organizational size, technology, and integration given differentiation of the environmental context. These ideas have been combined into an evolutionary theory of organizational forms. The next wave of organizational theory during the late 1970s shifted to considering long historical periods of either organizational populations as did population ecology theory or bundles of rules as did organizational institutional theory. The former perspective focused on the dynamics of entry and exit, patterns of specialization and generalization, and resource portioning. The latter perspective examined the global diffusion of various sets of rules or organizational practice and also the mechanisms that explained isomorphism of these practices. Then in the 1990s, the growth of science led to a new set of concerns resulting in a change in the theory of the firm, a focus on learning, and a recognition of the importance of interorganizational relationships for innovation.
P
arsons,
T
alcott
Authors: Chen Hon‐Fai
Published: December 2017

As one of the founding fathers of modern sociology, Talcott Parsons (1902–1978) had devoted consistent efforts on the building of general theory. With an innovative synthesis of the works of Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Sigmund Freud, among others, Parsons sought to articulate a voluntaristic theory of action as the common theoretical core against which the scientific status of sociology can be secured. On this basis Parsons set forth the pattern variables, the four‐function scheme, and other analytic constructs for the empirical studies of social system, covering a wide range of topics, such as health, education, Christianity, and American society. Once characterizing himself as an “incurable theorist,” Parsons's condensed and technical prose sounded obscure even for professional sociologists. But American sociology under Parsons's intellectual leadership attained paradigmatic status and won international acclaim. Contemporary sociologists who were concerned with the foundation of sociology and its theoretical rigor can learn from his past achievements and mistakes. The posthumous publication of his work on the American societal community promised a reappraisal of Parsons's theoretical system as a whole.
Pentecostalism
Authors: Fer Yannick
Published: December 2017

From its origin in the early twentieth century, when Pentecostalism emerged from a “revival” within the context of North American Protestantism, its distinctive identity has been built on the experience of the “gifts of the Holy Spirit” (
charisma
). This charismatic theology and the emotions that it implies has led many sociologists to describe Pentecostalism as mainly a system of charismatic authority, even if Pentecostal churches embrace more diverse types of leadership and institution than this simple Weberian ideal‐type. The rapid development of Pentecostalism worldwide has also prompted extensive scientific research on the relationships between Pentecostalism and globalization. Social scientists have especially examined the affinity between Pentecostal morality and global capitalism, the role of migrations in the spread of Pentecostalism and the shaping of a charismatic global culture, which maintains ambivalent relationships with local cultures.
Political Economy
Authors: Barnes Tom
Published: December 2017

Political economy may be regarded as a subdiscipline of, as broadly related to, or as a “heterodox” critical alternative to mainstream economics. Perhaps surprisingly, political economy's role as an alternative to mainstream economics has not been significantly strengthened in recent years, despite the “great recession” casting doubt upon economists' traditional assumptions about market society. The entry explores this quandary by showing that political economy is a deeply contested field. Framing the field as broader in scope than mainstream economics, three different definitions of political economy are explored: (1) as the application of orthodox economic principles to public policy; (2) as a subdiscipline of political science with links to economic studies; and (3) as a tradition of heterodox economics. It suggests that the future for political economy may lie in a combination of the second and third traditions, alongside a greater engagement with forms of economic analysis emerging across the social sciences.
PoliticalIslam
Authors: Roose Joshua M.
Published: December 2017

Political Islam may be understood as a broad category of analysis. The term denotes Islamic political activism in the public sphere. It has a number of characteristics. First, political Islam is typically considered interchangeable with Islamism and its practitioners, Islamists. Second, it is a profoundly modern phenomenon that sees practitioners embrace modernity, including the appropriation of modern technology, with reference to Islamic heritage, yet reject modernism and secularism. Third, contemporary political Islam is constantly evolving based on political circumstance. Far from stagnant, it is fluid and dynamic and its expression is based upon local context. While those utilizing the concept must be aware of challenges in the application of the term, it remains a relevant way to conceptualize Islamic political activism.
Posthumanism
Authors: Fuller Steve
Published: December 2017

Posthumanism as a contemporary movement draws on diverse cultural strands in European intellectual history which would replace “the human” with some more generic notion of “life” as the locus of value in the world. The “Western” origin of this movement is stressed because the privileging of the human has been largely a “Western” preoccupation, understood in world‐historic terms. Non‐Western philosophies and cultures have generally privileged a realm such as “Nature” under which the human is normally subsumed or to which the human is presented in opposition. In this respect, the non‐Western world has always already been “posthuman.”
Postindustrial Society
Authors: Abbas Tahir
Published: December 2017

The concept of postindustrial society refers to changing industrial processes experienced in advanced western economies. As societies modify their economic base from traditional manufacturing and engineering sectors to service and knowledge sectors the nature of economic and social relations shift. This shift also reconfigures economy and society. The consequences of social transformation impact the organization of a society's class structure and the character of its social movements.
Preferences and Society
Authors: Lorenzo Ronald
Published: December 2017

The study of preferences and society can also be understood as the study of a society's values. Talcott Parsons describes preferences as “social agreements” about what is desirable in a society. These social agreements create a need or desire for individuals within the society to obtain whatever is valued. David Riesman contextualizes preferences within the framework of changing modes of “social character.” Social character structures preferences and embeds goals in individuals. Erich Fromm and other theorists associated with the Frankfurt School approach preferences in society from within a Marxist–Freudian perspective. Fromm posits that the id in the individual personality is shaped and modified by the superego of society and based on the value systems of the social class to which the individual belongs. The symbolic interactionist perspective regards values or preferences as impermanent and fluctuating. The self, according to symbolic interactionists, constantly adjusts values and preferences according to its social context.
Prices
Authors: Worrell Mark P.
Published: December 2017

The concept of price is defined within the social science tradition as the measure of value. This definition problematizes the relationship between price and value. A number of perspectives – “nominalist,” “realist,” and “social constructivist” – address the relationship within the context of the capitalist system of wealth production and accumulation. Also important to the social theory of price are the concepts of “inflation” and “deflation.”
Primitive Society
Authors: Kallianos Yannis
Published: December 2017

The notion of “primitive society” is associated with political and academic controversies as well as with the search for the origins of society. Since the early days of the European Enlightenment, the ways that “primitive society” has been imagined have themselves helped to constitute modern societies' portrayal of themselves. In the course of its history as a concept, “primitive society” has been used as a tool of legitimation for hegemonic, (post)colonial, and racist practices and structures. The myth of the “primitive society” has also served as a framework through which Western thinkers could critically interrogate their own established structures and norms.
Privacy
Authors: Abu‐Laban Yasmeen
Published: December 2017

Privacy can generally be defined as the ability of individuals (or groups) to control others access to information about them. Privacy is valued, and is enshrined in the international human rights regime. However, as illustrated by debates concerning the categories of “public” and “private,” privacy is also complex, subject to variability across time and space, and subject to debated interpretation. As such, privacy is an essentially contested concept. Nonetheless in an era of post‐9/11 security and where technology gives states, organizations, and individuals ever‐new ways to invade privacy, it can be expected that analysts will continue to investigate and debate privacy.
Procedural Justice
Authors: Tankebe Justice , Gutierrez‐Gomez Laura
Published: December 2017

Procedural justice refers to the fairness of the processes through which an actor or an institution makes a decision or allocate resources. It is premised on a conception of people as right‐bearing individuals
entitled
to a certain quality of interaction with decision‐makers. Thus, we speak of the fairness of police or judicial procedures. There is evidence to show that just procedures often matter more to people than do the outcomes they receive. Yet justice cannot be sufficiently understood by limiting it to processes alone; a fuller analysis necessarily requires a focus on substantive outcomes, and the different ways distributive and procedural justice interact in different contexts.
Prostitution
Authors: Skilbrei May‐Len
Published: December 2017

Prostitution can broadly be defined as the exchange of money for sex and is an economic and social relationship often talked about as encompassing a seller and a purchaser of sex. Sometimes a “third party,” that is, someone that brokers and perhaps also exploits this relationship, is also involved. Prostitution is one of many forms of activities taking place within the sex industry, and often referred to as a form of “sex work.” Social science scholars are central in knowledge production on the phenomenon, and have given particularly strong contributions in the form of ethnographic studies of life in prostitution and analysis of prostitution policy development. The scholarship engages with central social science debates on gender, sexuality, power, and agency and with policy development in one of the most contentious policy debates throughout the world; the debate on what prostitution is and what should be done about it.
Public Choice Theory
Authors: Mueller Dennis C.
Published: December 2017

Since World War II, a large literature has arisen that uses the methodology of economics to examine the behavior of governments and the actors in them. Some contributors to this literature refer to their research as “public choice,” some as “social choice,” and still others as “political economy.” This entry adopts a broad perspective on the field and treats contributions under all three headings simply aspublic choice. The entry discusses several of the early “classics” in the field, and some of the more important recent contributions to public choice are also described. Two important critiques of the public choice approach are reviewed, and the entry closes with brief conclusions.
Racialization
Authors: Goss Devon R. , Hughey Matthew W.
Published: December 2017

The study of race centers on the concept of race as a social construction. In this view, race is not seen as a trait rooted in biological differences, but instead as a system of categorization of individuals that is made meaningful through its pervasiveness in society – that is, to the degree to which the material conditions and “common sense” of a society are organized around race. This view differs from the biological study of race in that the emphasis is placed on how these categories develop and are maintained and transformed over space and time. As opposed to studying race as a fixed category, sociologists emphasize the process of racialization. Because race is neither an extant biological reality nor a static ideological configuration, the process of racialization reflects the legitimation, rationalization, and justification for racism or the systematic, hierarchical, and unequal distribution of resources and unequal treatment of people once racialized.
R
ahman,
F
azlur
Authors: Abbas Tahir
Published: December 2017

Fazlur Rahman (1919–1988) was a distinguished scholar of Islam. He taught at the University of Chicago until his death at the age of 68. His major contribution was to the field of exegesis. He argued the importance of reinterpreting the Qur'an in the light of social change and development.
Rationality
Authors: Prendergast Christopher
Published: December 2017

This entry examines theoretical conceptions of practical rationality from normative theories of utility and expected‐utility maximization through Herbert Simon's descriptive theory of “bounded rationality” and its successors.
Rationalization
Authors: Scaff Lawrence A.
Published: December 2017

Rationalization is a concept introduced by Max Weber. It refers to the process by which social action becomes more instrumental, goal‐oriented, or logically coherent. It can also refer to increasing systematic coherence in a system of ideas or beliefs. Today rationalization is widely accepted as an important concept in social theory, especially in the analysis of organizations, economic and political development, and globalization.
Rawls,John
Authors: Turner Bryan S.
Published: December 2017

John Rawls (1921–2002) was the most influential legal and political philosopher of his generation. The James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, his views on justice and liberty shaped academic debate for many decades. His magnum opus wasA Theory of Justice, published in 1971, in which he developed a new vocabulary – “justice as fairness,” the “veil of ignorance,” “overlapping consensus” – to capture his liberal perspective. His work – often referred to as “Rawlsianism” – as a whole, can be interpreted as an attempt to reconcile individual liberty, social equality, and justice.
Reaganomics
Authors: Scerri Andy
Published: December 2017

Reaganomics is the term used to describe the suite of “neoliberal” policies developed by Republican Party strategists in the lead‐up to, and applied during the tenure of, the United States' 40th president, Ronald Reagan (1981–1989).
Regulation Theory
Authors: Jessop Bob
Published: December 2017

Regulation theory is a distinctive research program in critical political economy. It emerged in response to the crisis of Fordism and addresses the relationship between economic and extra‐economic factors that together secure the reproduction‐régulation of capitalism considered as a contradictory, crisis‐prone, and conflictual social relation. The entry outlines seven schools but focuses on the concepts and arguments of the dominant Parisian school. It also explores how the approach has developed since the 1970s in line with changes in capitalism itself.
Risk Society
Authors: Blok Anders , Selchow Sabine
Published: December 2017

The concept of “risk society” was coined by German sociologist Ulrich Beck in 1986 and has since gained central importance in both social theory and public discourse. As modern industrial society advances, Beck argues, its associated production of ecological and techno‐scientific risks is gaining a new epoch‐defining societal significance. The result is a profound structural transformation, leading to a rupture between first (industrial, wealth‐oriented) and second (reflexive, risk‐oriented) modernity. In the risk society, existing modern national institutions of economy, science, law, and politics are confronted with their own harmful and unintended side effects, in a process undermining their very foundations of rationality and legitimacy. What is required, Beck suggests, is a wholesale “reinvention of politics,” based on recognizing the conditions of manufactured, self‐inflicted insecurity in risk society – and attuned to the transboundary interconnectedness and cosmopolitan imperatives manifested via global risks that, like climate change, cannot be contained by nation‐state institutions.
Romantic Love
Authors: Bauer J. Edgar
Published: December 2017

The concept of “Romantic love” denotes the historically determinable form of close bonding that emerged in the early nineteenth century as a modern emulation of the medieval Occitan troubadour tradition, and remained influential as a critical alternative to bourgeois marriage well after the societal consolidation of Victorian ideology. In his “philosophical history” of love, Irving Singer suggests that the worldview in which Romantic love was embedded constitutes “the highest level to which man's thinking about the love of persons had thus far reached.” Seeking to avoid the heteronormativity implicit in the traditional semantics of love, GLBTQ historians and theoreticians have resorted to the descriptive term of “romantic friendship” to designate a highly individualized same‐sex form of erotic or sexual involvement.
S
chumpeter,
J
oseph
Authors: Swedberg Richard
Published: December 2017

The writings of Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) are studied today not only in economics but also in political science and sociology. The name of Schumpeter has in addition become part of the media discourse. In the media as well as in economics, Schumpeter is mainly known for his work on entrepreneurship and for having coined the term “creative destruction.” In political science, Schumpeter's name is primarily associated with his revision of the classical theory of democracy; and in sociology, with his studies of topics such as taxation, imperialism, and the decline of ruling classes. Conservative in his politics but unorthodox in his thinking, Schumpeter has found followers in many different academic and ideological camps.
Schutz,Alfred
Authors: Prendergast Christopher
Published: December 2017

This entry on the life and work of phenomenological sociologist Alfred Schutz (1899–1959) emphasizes his use of Husserlian phenomenology to clarify the core methodological concepts of Weberian sociology and Austrian economics and to chart the “structures of the lifeworld.”
Scientific Racism
Authors: Meloni Maurizio
Published: December 2017

Scientific racism, the recourse to science to justify and rationalize hierarchical comparison between human populations, became increasingly important in the second half of the nineteenth century, in parallel with the growing influence of imperial powers on the international arena. At that time, the first truly racist worldviews were elaborated and accompanied by a series of biological measurements of bodily differences between races (for example, craniometry). Whereas nineteenth‐century biological sciences lent key arguments to racism, to assess the impact of twentieth‐century science, human genetics in particular, is more complex. On one side, especially until the 1940s, human genetics was used to uphold profoundly racist ideas. On the other side, not only genetics (hard‐heredity) produced a beneficial separation between race as a biological concept and culture, but also it increasingly emphasized the centrality of the individual (not group or race) as the only significant level of analysis of human variations.
Secularization
Authors: Davie Grace
Published: December 2017

Secularization denotes the process by which different societies become more secular at various (identifiable) stages of their development. It is, and always has been, a complex term. The reasons for this complexity include questions of definition, data, method, timing, context, and causality. Different schools of thought have emerged in the secularization debate that reflect continuing change in the modern world order. The notion of the postsecular is increasingly included in the discussion.
Self‐Categorization Theory
Authors: Reynolds Katherine J.
Published: December 2017

Self‐categorization theory (SCT) is a major theory in social psychology with a significant impact inside and outside the field. It explains how an aggregate of individuals is transformed into a psychological group and the consequences of this transformation (group cohesion, cooperation, common purpose). The SCT analysis has broader implications for understandings of the human mind, the self‐concept, and the self‐process. Most notably, it reveals that the human mind is designed for sociality and that the self‐process is malleable, variable, and context dependent. Recent SCT findings support the power of social identity and associated internalization of in‐group norms and values in transforming organizational behavior, individual health, well‐being, and behavior.
Self‐Fulfilling Prophecy
Authors: Martire Fabrizio
Published: December 2017

Robert K. Merton defines a self‐fulfilling prophecy as a false definition of a situation, which causes a behavior that, in turn, makes the initial false conception come true. As a general representation of a specific relation between beliefs and reality, the concept of self‐fulfilling prophecy is useful to describe and analyze manifold kinds of psychological and social phenomena. Broadly speaking, we can say that the concept of self‐fulfilling prophecy highlights the huge power of our conceptual frameworks and beliefs: they not only shape the way in which we see the reality, but they can also determine the reality itself.
Sexual Identity
Authors: Houston David L.
Published: December 2017

Sexual identity is the way in which an individual chooses to be seen as a sexual being to others. No single definition of the term predominates among clinicians, researchers, or scholars. Sexual identity is variable as a concept and definition across cultures, and emerged largely as a result of Western thinking on sexuality as a whole.
Sexual Scripting
Authors: Jackson Stevi
Published: December 2017

This entry discusses the concept of sexual scripts and the process of scripting as developed by John Gagnon and William Simon and explains how this approach is distinctively sociological. The different levels or dimensions of scripting are outlined along with the implications of the scripting approach for understanding the ways in which individuals become sexual.
Sexualities
Authors: Evans David T.
Published: December 2017

Referring in a plural case to “sexualities” indicates significantly more than a contemporary strategy at being inclusive across a spectrum of sexual diversity. Given the less than optimum ways many people have been, and still are, treated, based on minority sexual identity, or their attractions, practices, or gender differences, then using the plural case is a poignant reminder of the full wealth of humanity and not simply majoritarian representations of it.
Sexuality Research, Ethics and
Authors: Lamb Sharon , Brodt Madeline
Published: December 2017

Ethics intersects with sexuality research in two ways, first as a topic of study and second as a way to perform research on sexuality. Research on ethics and sex or sexuality has focused on political issues as they have arisen. This entry discusses types of research on sex and sexuality that involve ethics like research supporting LGBTQ rights or sex education, as well as how one does research on sex and sexuality in an ethical way.
Shared‐Reality Theory
Authors: Echterhoff Gerald
Published: December 2017

Shared reality is currently understood as the product of the motivated process of experiencing a commonality of inner (mental) states with others about the world. First, an overview is provided about the main theoretical assumptions, including conditions of shared reality that have been proposed in recent theorizing. Second, the intellectual ancestry of the theory is traced back to approaches in three main areas, that is, interpersonal communication and language use, phenomenological approaches, and social influence research. Finally, the operationalization in empirical research and the applicability of the theory are outlined.
S
herif,
M
uzaffer
Authors: Kagitcibasi Cigdem
Published: December 2017

Muzaffer Sherif is considered to be one of the founders of modern social psychology. He is known especially for his “social judgment” and “realistic conflict” theories and for his
autokinetic effect
and
Robbers' Cave
experiments that served as the bases for these theories, respectively. His work on the formation of group norms and on intergroup relations has been fully integrated into the field.
S
hils,
E
dward
Authors: Turner Stephen
Published: December 2017

Edward Shils (1910–1995) was a transatlantic intellectual with deep roots in American sociology, especially C. H. Cooley and his teacher Robert Park. He was deeply engaged with European literature and German sociological thinking, and was a major translator of Karl Mannheim and Max Weber. He was also closely associated with Michael Polanyi and opposed to the left. His core social theory involved the relation between primary groups and the charismatic center of society. He emphasized the significance and centrality to human social life of personal primary group attachments, and criticized notions of mass society, the lonely crowd, and the authoritarian personality.
Smith,Adam
Authors: Zafirovski Milan
Published: December 2017

Adam Smith is the founder of economics initially named political economy. In addition, he is a moral philosopher and a representative of classical liberalism and rationalism, particularly of the European Enlightenment. In economic theory, Smith is especially famous and influential for the concept of an “invisible hand” He also known for his conceptions of exchange value, prices, and the market, competition and monopoly, the wealth of societies, the division of labor, political economy as a science, historical economic systems, the relations between the economy and society, in particular the economic functions of the state, and so forth.
Social Change
Authors: Salerno Roger A.
Published: December 2017

Social change is a process that describes how societies and individuals who comprise them transform over time. This entry explores how social theorists have attempted to conceptualize this process through the establishment of paradigms and narratives. In doing so, it describes some of the central features of these theories of change and their social and cultural significance. Classical, neoclassical, and poststructural theories of social change are surveyed and examined in an attempt to understand better how people organize and structure their environments and how they themselves are altered by these processes.
Social Control
Authors: Deflem Mathieu
Published: December 2017

Social control refers to the foundation of social order as well as to the definition of and response to crime and/or deviance. The concept was initially introduced in sociology to refer broadly to the foundations of social order, especially in societies that were undergoing rapid social change and exhibited an increasingly individualist values system. Subsequently, the concept was redefined in critical‐sociological terms to refer to the coercive mechanisms of order. From then on, social control began to be understood in a more delineated fashion to refer to the control of deviance and/or crime, in which meaning the concept is most commonly understood and applied today.
Social Differentiation
Authors: Colomy Paul
Published: December 2017

Like capitalism, democracy, bureaucracy, and globalization, social differentiation is a redolent idea that captures something distinctive and definitive about the modern social world. Discussions of differentiation appear in the work of several of sociology's founding figures, including Comte and Spencer, but the most forceful classic exposition of the concept appears in Durkheim's
The Division of Labor in Society
. In the mid‐twentieth century, Parsons and his colleagues extended Durkheim's early statement, situating differentiation in a neo‐evolutionary account of social change. More recently, Luhmann has portrayed differentiation as a signal element of contemporary social systems, while Eisenstadt and others have imbued the description and explanation of differentiation with greater specificity and historical nuance.
Social Economics
Authors: Zafirovski Milan
Published: December 2017

Social economics is a specific idea and part of economic science. It is a broader variant of economics, emphasizing its origin and nature as a social science. Social economics counters the notion of “pure” economics as an extension of physics, mechanics, or mathematics to the economy. Social economics is an analysis of the economy in relation to and in the context of society, especially social institutions. It approaches the economic system as a part of the social system that is more comprehensive and complex in that it comprises economic and non‐economic systems and institutions. Social economics is mostly equivalent or analogous to economic sociology as the analysis of social institutions in their effects on the economy and the market.
Social Psychology and Health
Authors: Hilmert Clayton J.
Published: December 2017

Social psychological research and theory have contributed significantly to our understanding of health and illness. The currently predominant biopsychosocial model of health and illness necessitates an understanding of how the environment, mind, and body interact, and the health‐relevant outcomes these interactions can produce. Social psychologists have been studying these issues since the field's inception.
Social Solidarity
Authors: Kivisto Peter
Published: December 2017

Social solidarity is a fundamental concept in sociology that seeks to determine how individuals develop a willingness to stand by others. This has been a recurring theme in the history of sociology, beginning in particular with Durkheim and extending through Parsons to Alexander.
Society
Authors: Barbalet Jack
Published: December 2017

The notion “society” is often regarded as problematic because of the large number of versions of it that are available and because some of them inevitably lose traction. The discussion in this entry, however, acknowledges that there are different noncompeting notions of “society” that have distinct histories and relate to different aspects of social life. These are society as “companionship, conjugate and civil,” society as “moral community,” and society as a “public good.” None of these different notions of “society” relies upon sociological authority although various sociological accounts acknowledge aspects of each of them. In addition to these three notions of society the distinct and diverse treatments of “society” in sociological traditions are also discussed. In this context the absence of a single or converging conception of society is a reflection of distinctive intellectual needs generative of diverse ideas about “society.” It is shown that there is a more or less stable set of conceptions of “society” in sociology, ranging from the idea that society is a context of self‐perception, interaction between social actors, discernable sets of problems, issues or themes that can be investigated and reported, and the complex of actors and parts (institutions and conditions) that relate to and interact with each other.
Socio‐Legal Studies
Authors: Olgiati Vittorio
Published: December 2017

The rise and development of socio‐legal studies and sociology of law as disciplinary fields from the early nineteenth century up to the present can be summarized with reference to the refinement and specification of the notion of law according to five main analytical points: law as a social fact; free search of living law; law as an instrument of social engineering; law as a system mirroring social dynamics; and law as a polycentric regulatory device. This entry aims to explain the rationale of such theoretical approaches.
Sociology, Applied
Authors: Driskell Robyn
Published: December 2017

Applied sociology has a rich history yet has struggled with its identity over the years. Recent developments have called for the acknowledgement and awareness of the benefits of applied sociology. Typically, applied sociology is defined as sociology in action or the application of sociological methods, yet, few can agree on a single definition. The methodologies employed by applied sociologists include various survey methods and holistic field studies. Applied sociologists are also very active in community‐development efforts and community activism. The future of applied sociology is broad and expanding. Many opportunities and professional activities, outside academia, are available to applied sociologists.
Structuralism
Authors: Jessop Bob
Published: December 2017

“Structuralism” is a term of art in metatheoretical and historical reflections on social theory that describes an otherwise heterogeneous set of philosophical, literary, theoretical, and analytical currents in the humanities and social sciences with roots in the postwar French academy. It offered no clearly defined program, paradigm, or doctrine beyond the idea that “structure matters” and, in this sense, structuralism was more a moment in the development of French thought than a solid movement. There were nonetheless family resemblances based on a shared intellectual culture, personal connections, and a particular style of theorizing, which were based on a relational ontology, an interest in totalization, and an ambition to unify different disciplines by reinterpreting their respective theoretical objects with the aid of structural linguistics. The contingent and contested nature of the structuralist moment is seen in the fact that many so‐called structuralists are also described as poststructuralists on the grounds that they sought to overcome the limits of structuralism without entirely rejecting it, taking its interest in linguistics and discourse even further (e.g., Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida).
Structuration Theory
Authors: Stones Rob
Published: December 2017

Structuration theory is an approach pioneered by the British sociologist Anthony Giddens in the 1970s and early 1980s. It takes the notion of social structure seriously, with its emphasis on the weight of the past within the present, but emphasizes the role played by agents within a processual dynamic at the heart of these structures, which are never entirely static. Giddens's approach has elective affinities with the theoretical outlook of the French theorist, Pierre Bourdieu. Both theorists wish to combine an emphasis on the meaningful activity of social actors with respect for the structural power of the social milieu. More recent work in structuration has moved beyond the abstract, philosophically oriented work of Giddens to explore its implications for in situ, empirical case studies. This has led to a cumulative refinement of concepts at the heart of structuration and to a greater attention to epistemological and methodological issues.
Sumner, William Graham
Authors: Kivisto Peter
Published: December 2017

William Graham Sumner (1840–1910) was a member of the founding generation of American sociology, the person responsible for introducing sociology at his alma mater Yale University, and near the end of his life the second President of the American Sociological Society. Born in Patterson, New Jersey to working‐class immigrant parents, he attended Yale as an undergraduate and, after studying theology in Geneva, Göttingen, and Oxford, he returned to Yale to teach classics. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest and served in a parish for three years, before returning to academe where he spent the remainder of his life.
Symbolic Interactionism
Authors: Denzin Norman K.
Published: December 2017

Symbolic interactionism is that unique American sociological and social psychological perspective that traces its roots to the early American pragmatists, James, Dewey, Peirce, and Mead. It has been called “the loyal opposition” in American sociology, the most sociological of social psychologies. Only recently has this perspective entered the discourses of the other social sciences, including anthropology, psychology, and science studies, where the works of Mead have been joined with the theories of Wittgenstein, Vygotsky, and Bakhtin. Harre, for example, places “symbolic interactions” at the heart of psychology, showing how selves, attitudes, motives, genders, and emotions are “discursive productions, attributes of conversations rather than mental entities.”
Technology, Biotechnology, Technological Determinism
Authors: Agassi Joseph
Published: December 2017

Science and science‐based technology bolster each other. By system theory, each technology is partly social, partly natural. Social technology now includes the (new) techniques of control of technologies, aimed at blocking their ill effects, particularly at preventing any human‐caused apocalypse.
T
oynbee,
A
rnold
J
oseph
Authors: Abbas Tahir
Published: December 2017

Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1885–1975), economic historian and policy commentator, analyzed the rise and fall of civilizations. His work was hugely popular until the 1960s when it fell out of favor as a result of his strong criticism of Western postwar neo‐imperial policy, in relation to Russia and the Middle East in particular.
Transgender and Transsexual
Authors: Irving Dan
Published: December 2017

Transgender, transsexuality, and trans* are social categories based on embodied sex and gender identity formed interrelationally and reflective of structural, institutional, and personal relations. Transsexuality emerged from medical, cultural, and grassroots milieus and reflected an identity tied to desire to embody the sex opposite to one's birth sex. Transgender emerged as an umbrella term to unite non‐normatively gendered identities within a political movement. Trans* reflects the lessons learned concerning the limitations of both transsexual and transgender as identity‐based and political categories.
Transhumanism
Authors: Fuller Steve
Published: December 2017

Transhumanism is the recent philosophical, cultural, and political movement which calls for the indefinite extension (or “enhancement”) of human powers, even including that humans transform into some other mode of being – not just a still higher ape but perhaps a consolidated “cyborg” or some purely silicon existence. The movement is quite controversial, and has been associated with both libertarian and authoritarian political agendas. Nevertheless, transhumanists regard themselves as the most faithful heirs to the spirit of the eighteenth‐century European Enlightenment.
T
roeltsch,
E
rnst
Authors: Adair‐Toteff Christopher
Published: December 2017

Ernst Troeltsch (1865–1923) was a leading Protestant theologian, philosopher of culture and history, and political thinker. Along with Max Weber he was the founder of the sociology of religion. Troeltsch's writings on social theory, historicism, and values are primarily intended to address the challenge that modernity poses for Christianity.
Trust
Authors: Frederiksen Morten
Published: December 2017

Trust has become an increasingly important concept in social theory. In particular, what it means to trust, how trust is at all possible, and whether trust is fundamentally rational or irrational is much contested. The relevance of trust as both concept and empirical phenomenon has been linked to the development trajectory of modernity, since increasing individualism and disintegration of traditional norms and roles seems to suggest that trust is becoming increasingly dangerous and tenuous. Finally, trust has become a salient concept in theories on the relationship between people on the one hand and institutions and systems on the other.
Turner,Victor
Authors: St John Graham
Published: December 2017

Victor W. Turner (1920–1983) was a symbolic anthropologist whose comparative investigations of ritual and cultural performance left a unique impression in the social and human sciences, and across the arts. Turner's formulations on the ontological value of ritual symbolism, “liminality,” and culture have had a lasting impact in anthropology and other disciplines. His “social drama” model offered a benchmark heuristic to elucidate universal social and cultural performances, from tribal to postindustrial cultures. Turner made a path beyond the Manchester School of Social Anthropology, modifying a structural‐functionalist perspective in an abiding interest in universals in human performance and the fate of religion in postindustrial culture. His interventions on ritual symbolism and dramatic process continue to have an appeal among researchers of culture, performance, and religion.
Utility, Marginal Utility
Authors: Mosselmans Bert
Published: December 2017

This entry first discusses the development of the concept of “utility” in Bentham's ethics. Although the concept appeared in several writings in the history of economics, it was Jevons who made it the cornerstone of his political economy. The entry then investigates how modern mainstream micro‐economics deals with “(marginal) utility,” and then briefly discusses extensions and criticisms brought forward by von Neumann‐Morgenstern and Kahneman‐Tversky.
Values
Authors: Barbalet Jack
Published: December 2017

The notion of value has a long history in social science, ranging from financial worth to subjective desirability. The empirical study of values reveals difficulty in clear specification of the concept and indifferent correlation between values and behavior. In those social theories that privilege culture the concept of value has tended to perform a key role. In the work of Talcott Parsons and also Max Weber in particular “value” has a defining quality, although different in each.
W
arner,
W
.
L
loyd
Authors: Turner Bryan S.
Published: December 2017

W. Lloyd Warner (1917–1970) was trained as an anthropologist at Berkeley University of California where he completed his BA degree in 1925. As an anthropologist he was influenced by Robert H. Lowie. Between 1926 and 1929, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Australian National Research Council, he completed a study of the Murngin people of Arnhem Land in Australia, publishing
A Black Civilization
in 1937. Warner is, however, remembered more as a sociologist than an anthropologist. Warner joined the University of Chicago in 1935 where he was influenced by Robert E. Park. He was involved in Elton Mayo's famous studies of workplace motivation at the Western Electric plant at Hawthorne in Chicago which produced the famous notion of the “Hawthorne effect” to describe how workers are motivated by social and emotional aspects of work rather than just economic incentives. In 1959 he moved to Michigan State University to engage in community studies from which he published five volumes. His work thus contributed to the understanding of social class, status, and ethnicity in America.
White Supremacy
Authors: Rodríguez Dylan
Published: December 2017

White supremacy is a global sociopolitical imagination and changing historical apparatus of human dominance. It is simultaneously an ideological, epistemological, cultural, institutional, militarized, and aesthetic structuring of power, (legitimated/state and illicit/state‐condoned) coercion, and social identity. Thus, an adequate definition of white supremacy must attempt to account for the totality of its influence on – and determination of – the relations of violence, evisceration, and denigration that have characterized the formation of Western civilization and post‐Enlightenment (white) humanism over the past half millennium.
Xenophobia
Authors: Roose Joshua M.
Published: December 2017

Xenophobia is typically defined as a “fear of strangers,” from Greek
xenos
, meaning “stranger” and “guest,” and
phobos
, meaning “fear.” The term came into contemporary currency in the mid‐1980s when the European Parliament inquiry into racism defined it as a concerning phenomenon. Islamophobia is commonly associated with xenophobia and typically defined as the “fear of Islam.” The concept was first outlined in its contemporary usage in the 1997 Runnymede Trust report (UK) and has come into increasing use in the post‐9/11 context, particularly in Europe. The term is plagued by conceptual weaknesses and may be better understood as an advocacy concept.
Aggression
Authors: Anderson Craig A.
Published: December 2017

This entry defines aggression, its various subtypes, and its relation to violence. It also gives a brief overview of risk factors that contribute to aggression, ranging from biological to sociological to psychological. Distinctions between types of aggression include reactive versus proactive, direct versus indirect, and physical versus verbal versus relational. Violence is a subtype of aggression, defined by likely severe consequences.
A
llport,
G
ordon
Authors: Pettigrew Thomas F.
Published: December 2017

Gordon Allport (1897–1967) was a leading personality and social psychologist of the mid‐twentieth century. Associated with Harvard University for half a century, he helped to establish personality as a major component of academic psychology with a classic 1937 book. Allport also advanced social psychology with another classic volume on intergroup prejudice in 1954. Three features characterize his work. He provided a broadly eclectic balance of the many sides of psychology. He formulated the discipline's central problems and proposed innovative approaches to them. And Allport's entire work offers a seamless perspective both forcefully advanced and elegantly written.
A
rendt,
H
annah
Authors: Fine Robert D.
Published: December 2017

Arendt is best known as a political rather than a social theorist but much of her work may be read as a rich contribution to social theory and in particular to the critique of political modernity. This reading reflects her own emphasis on the importance of the activity of understanding and her debt to the understanding of society to be found in classical philosophy and sociology.
Aristotle
Authors: Skultety Steven
Published: December 2017

Aristotle's social theory is centered on the notion that human beings can only group themselves together by forming hierarchical communities. This entry explains Aristotle's conception of society as a composite of such communities, summarizes his understanding of why there are different kinds of community, and identifies the main social obstacles he understood faced political communities.