bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Crowdsourcing
Authors: Halford Susan , Tinati Ramine
Published: September 2017

“Crowdsourcing” describes the diverse practices of online‐distributed knowledge production whereby the Web is used to host collaborative platforms that focus large volumes of information, from multiple users, toward specific tasks. Sometimes described as the “wisdom of the crowd” or “collective intelligence,” crowdsourcing was originally conceived as a model for business innovation. It has now been taken up by a range of organizations and users – from business to government, charities, and NGOs – and has come to describe different models of practice, ranging from tightly prescribed human computational tasks to looser forms of collective data‐gathering. Usually undertaken voluntarily, crowdsourcing raises questions about participants' motivation, data quality and sustainability, and also broader questions about the politics of knowledge production – as citizens rather than experts come to play a greater role in generating knowledge about our world – and the changing nature of labor markets, as salaried professionals are replaced by unpaid volunteers.
Heteronormativity
Authors: Schilt Kristen
Published: September 2017

This entry provides a definition and overview of the analytic concept of “heteronormativity.” It details the origin of the term and provides three examples of how the term relates to gender inequality, sex segregation, and sexual prejudice. It ends with a brief discussion of the related term “homonormativity.”
Bounded Rationality
Authors: Bögenhold Dieter
Published: September 2017

The famous formulation of
bounded rationality
goes back to Herbert Simon, who contributed widely to decision theory. His principal research question is: How do human beings reason when the conditions for rationality postulated by neoclassical economics are not met? The concept of bounded rationality takes into account three facts: that agents often act in ways that could be characterized as nonrational behavior driven by emotions; that access to information is limited, since people do not share the same bits of the information that is necessary for deciding among alternatives; and that, even in a situation of equally shared information, human beings are characterized by cognitively diverse and also limited skills. Among others, D. Kahneman in economics and J. Elster in sociology conducted further pioneering work on bounded rationality. Recent research programs on well‐being and happiness, emotions and (ir)rationality can be seen as following in the footsteps of earlier ideas of bounded rationality.
Domination
Authors: Clegg Stewart R.
Published: September 2017

Weber is the main theorist of domination. In English translation, much of Weber's work appears more confused than it is, because of the misspecification of cases of domination as authority. Matters of translation are clarified and future directions suggested in terms of research into the domination of ultimate values and the organizations' creation and reproduction of consent to domination.
“I” and “Me”
Authors: Cook Gary A.
Published: September 2017

The distinction between “I” and “me” as dimensions of human self‐consciousness was first set forth by William James in his classicThe Principles of Psychology. Somewhat more than a decade later, George Herbert Mead began to employ this distinction in his early essays on functional and social psychology. But when a set of his course lectures on social psychology at the University of Chicago was published posthumously asMind, Self, and Society, Mead's readers were confronted with passages that seemed to embrace not only the Jamesian version of the “I” and “me” distinction but another version as well. As a result, a good deal of confusion and controversy has resulted among those who have attempted to make use of this distinction as a tool for sociological analysis.
R
owntree,
S
eebohm (1871–1954)
Authors: Freeman Mark
Published: September 2017

Seebohm Rowntree (1871–1954) was a British pioneer of poverty research and industrial psychology, best known for his poverty surveys of the city of York. A businessman and social reformer from a notable Quaker family, Rowntree is often seen as an important figure in the history of empirical sociology, although many of his methods and approaches have since been subject to considerable challenge and debate. Rowntree is thought to have devised the first “poverty line” and to have invented the concept of the “poverty cycle.”
Inequality, Inverted U‐Curve Hypothesis
Authors: Royce Daniel
Published: September 2017

In the over half a century since its inception, the inverted U‐curve hypothesis cautiously articulated by Simon Kuznets in 1954 has gone through a spectacular rise and fall, having first skyrocketed to universal acclaim as an indubitable socioeconomic law, then having endured a period of substantial criticism before eventually giving way to the world‐systems approach. Arguably one of the most influential claims ever made on inequality and development, Kuznets's U‐curve hypothesis relied on the dualistic nature of development as its core assumption in accounting for the curvilinear behavior of the growth–equity trade‐off. Promptly adopted by the post‐World War II developmentalist regime, Kuznets's U‐curve served as justification for presenting the rising poverty and inequality as inevitable byproducts of successful and ultimately egalitarian economic development. The account of the universal acceptance and eventual refutation of the inverted U‐curve hypothesis suggests the overarching role of social and political contexts in both the production and the appropriation of social science models.
Life Expectancy
Authors: Bruckner Tim A.
Published: September 2017

Life expectancy measures the mean age of death for a specified population. Scientists use this summary measure to test hypotheses regarding causes of population health and to compare the mortality experience across regions, defined subgroups, and time. A life table, which includes age‐specific death rates over the entire life course, provides the key measurements to estimate life expectancy. In countries with reliable data, life expectancy shows an upward trend from 1850 onward. Scholars attribute this increase to two processes: the decline in the burden of infectious diseases and infant mortality (1850–1950), and, from 1950 onward, the subsequent reduction of mortality rates at older ages. The unabated increase in period life expectancy in most countries since 1950 has led to much theoretical and empirical research regarding the future of human lifespan. Much research also focuses on identifying the causes of divergent life expectancies across countries, racial–ethnic groups, and males and females.
K
racauer,
S
iegfried (1889–1966)
Authors: Gilloch Graeme
Published: September 2017

This entry provides an overview of the work of the critical theorist Siegfried Kracauer and his distinctive contributions to sociology. It offers a chronological sketch of his major works and a guide to further reading in English.
Queer Materialism
Authors: Morton Donald
Published: September 2017

“Queer materialism” is a recently developed concept that arose in the wake of several fundamental changes brought about by poststructuralist cultural theory: one was a re‐understanding of materialism itself; another was the revalencing of the notion of the queer. In poststructuralism, the material force shaping all subjects (including queer ones) and their behavior is neither Epicurus's matter in motion nor Marx's economic system, but language. Whereas “queer” was once a term of opprobrium, it has been revalenced – through a “discursive reversal” – as a positive identity that, by its very nature, unsettles the normative system of gender and sexuality. “Queer,” moreover, has come to be used not only as a noun but also as a verb – “to queer”: all aspects of culture and society can be “queered.” Queer materialism points to marginal sexualities and genders as having a resistant material impact on the dominant elements of society. They “matter.”
Protestant Ethic
Authors: Kalberg Stephen
Published: September 2017

Max Weber's Protestant ethic thesis addresses a macrosociological theme of central importance: the rise of modern industrial capitalism. Cultural factors, heretofore neglected, must be acknowledged, he insists. To him, a “Protestant ethic” called forth amethodicalorientation of believers toward work, profit, and wealth, and this ethic “co‐participated” in the formation of a geographically expansive “spirit of capitalism.” In turn, a thrust was set in motion by this spirit that played a causal part in giving birth to modern capitalism. Weber also takes cognizance of the pivotal role played by the Protestant sects in America. This entry examines further Weber's focus upon ethical conduct in a multivolume corollary project that emphasizes amultitudeof causal factors. Finally, common criticisms of “the Weber thesis” are noted, together with the wide‐ranging impact of this work.
Greeley,AndrewM.(1928–2013)
Authors: Hout Michael
Published: September 2017

Andrew M. Greeley was an American sociologist of religion, Catholic priest, and popular author best known in sociology for his theory of the religious imagination. Greeley argued that people find meaning in religious beliefs because they learn them from family members and people in their community whom they know and trust. He developed this theory late in his career, after many empirical studies of belief, practice, ethnicity, education, and politics.
Ontology
Authors: Aspers Patrik
Published: September 2017

Ontology – or, to use the older term, metaphysics – is a branch of philosophy concerned with what there is, how it is, and what forms of being there are. Though early sociologists were acquainted with philosophy, most contemporary social scientists have discussed ontology from what is best described as an extension of epistemic questions or as an empirical field of study. It is difficult to see that sociologists' attempts to study ontology have resulted in quality improvements in sociological research. Philosophical ideas as developed for example by Martin Heidegger represent a largely unexplored potential for social scientists who are interested in ontology.
IndianDiaspora
Authors: Khadria Binod
Published: September 2017

The Indian Diaspora is now estimated to exceed 25 million people. Its genesis lay in the emigration of unskilled indentured labor to the British plantation colonies in early nineteenth century (for example, Fiji, Malaya, the Caribbean, Natal, and Mauritius), but it drew global attention when highly skilled professionals migrated to western developed countries in the late twentieth century. The Indian Diaspora represents various interest groups in India: regions, states, languages, religions, castes, and cultural identities find significant space in their associations and networks. In contrast to the highly skilled Indian diasporic communities well settled in the developed countries, the unskilled and semiskilled in the Gulf countries experience a high rate of turnover. Until the beginning of the twenty‐first century, there was an emotive concern in India about the highly educated knowledge workers supposedly “deserting the motherland” and an indifference to the large‐scale unskilled labor migration to the Gulf. Both these perceptions have since undergone a radical transformation.
Military–Industrial Complex
Authors: Hooks Gregory
Published: September 2017

The military–industrial complex was made possible by the fusion of militarism and industrialization. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, military powers mobilized entire societies to produce munitions and wage war. Such pervasive mobilizations distorted economic development and compromised political and social institutions. In the twenty‐first century, a shift toward smaller and science‐intensive armed forces has reduced the footprint of military forces. But the dangers of militarism persist. In place of concerns over a pervasive military–industrial complex, twenty‐first‐century risks center on a smaller and more insulated military pursuing callous military interventions.
Beck,Ulrich (1944–2015)
Authors: Sznaider Natan
Published: September 2017

Ulrich Beck was a German social theorist of modernity and an advocate of a cosmopolitan approach to the social sciences. He is widely recognized for developing the concept ofrisk societies, borderless societies characterized by the distribution of dangers rather than of goods.
Instagram
Authors: Carroll David R.
Published: September 2017

Instagram, the world's largest and most influential photo sharing service, was created in 2010, acquired by Facebook in 2012, and claims more than 500 million monthly active users who have helped contribute more than 30 billion images using Apple iPhone or Android smartphones as of 2016. Known for its characteristic square aspect‐ratio format, nostalgic filter effects, and the reverse‐chronological scrolling feed of images that attract Likes and comments, Instagram has popularized the selfie, redefined the quantification of celebrity status, and enabled the hyper‐real construction of self‐image through social media. The service has been criticized for its policies that govern copyrights of user media and limit acceptable expressions of speech on the service. As the service introduces an advertising‐based business model, new controversies emerge from the surveillance required to target consumers and the service's support for compensated product endorsements without regulated consumer disclosures.
Social Media and Its Role in the
A
rab Spring
Authors: Esposti Piergiorgio Degli
Published: September 2017

The Arab Spring was a wave of revolutionary protests, both violent and nonviolent, that started in Tunisia in 2010. Mass protests took place, giving rise to a domino effect across the Middle East and North Africa that also involved other countries in the Arabian Gulf. A chain reaction followed, the result of the so‐called demonstration effect of democratization, which occurs when, in a sequence of events, a political figure is inspired by the previous one, emulating seemingly successful tactics and deriving an additional benefit from the effect of amplification through the means of mass communication. This amplification in the case of Arab Spring was the result of the interaction between social media and traditional media.
Microcelebrity, Self‐Branding, and the
I
nternet
Authors: Marwick Alice
Published: September 2017

Microcelebrity and self‐branding are two self‐presentation strategies adopted by individuals online to gain status and attention. Microcelebrity is the state of being well known to a niche group of people, and a practice whereby people present themselves as public personas, create affective ties with audience members, and view followers as fans. Self‐branding is a concept drawn from business self‐help literature that encourages individuals to present themselves as edited “personal brands” to potential clients or employers. Both represent the infiltration of marketing and consumer culture into individual self‐presentation, and are facilitated by social media technologies that make potentially broad audiences available to individuals.
Edge Cities
Authors: Manella Gabriele
Published: September 2017

Edge cities are settlements with a very high concentration of office, business, retail, and entertainment spaces and activities. These settlements are located outside the traditional city downtowns. Most of them are in former rural or nonurban areas, close to motorway intersections or other major streets; others are close to important international airports. Many authors consider edge cities as one of the suburbanization forms. The first examples emerged in the United States in the mid‐twentieth century: The first use of the expression “edge city,” however, dates to 1991 – by the journalist Joel Garreau in his book
Edge City: Life on the New Frontier
.
Sociology of Hip‐Hop Music
Authors: Laybourn Wendy M.
Published: September 2017

Sociological research on hip‐hop examines the content and context of the genre from its 1970s origins in the Bronx in New York City to its commercialization, entry into mainstream popular culture, and global reach. This area of research investigates the lyrical content of the music, the sociohistoric and local contexts of its origins and subgenres, the effect of the music and concurrent imagery on consumers, and its mainstream reception.
Race/Ethnicity and Wealth in the
U
nited
S
tates
Authors: Brown Joey
Published: September 2017

This entry focuses on the relationship between race and wealth within the United States from a social inequality and social problems perspective. First, it introduces the topics of race and wealth, conceptualizing their intersection as one that is grounded in social inequality. It also details how wealth has been conceptualized and measured. Next, the distribution of wealth in the United States along racial and ethnic lines and patterns of wealth inequality are described. It then discusses economic and sociological explanations for the racial wealth gap. Finally, some consequences and currently proposed remedies to redress racial wealth inequality in the United States are presented.
Race and Sports
Authors: Foy Steven L.
Published: September 2017

American sociologists studying race and sports often focus on racial differences in access to sports; differences in how various racial groups are represented in sports; and racial differences in treatment of sports participants. (Similar processes operate globally but are not addressed here because of space constraints.) Although a number of barriers to diverse sports participation have diminished, differences in representation across racial groups and specific sports persist among athletes, management, owners, and sports viewers and via team names and mascots. Further, treatment within sports contexts differs by racial group in accordance with prevailing stereotypes and discriminatory norms.
Race and Elite Spaces
Authors: Lesser Emma , Hughey Matthew W.
Published: September 2017

Secret and elite organizations, in the form of Greek‐letter organizations, mutual aid societies, and civic orders, together possess a storied and often romanticized place in popular culture. While much has been made of these groups' glamorous origins and influence – such as the Freemasons' genesis in King Solomon's temple or the belief in the Illuminati's control of modern geopolitics – there has been little research on the role of race and ethnicity in organizing and perpetuating these cloistered orders. These orders are both a cause and consequence of colonization, segregation, and subjugation, and their varied roles function as catalysts and impediments to developing personal excellence, creating fictive kinship ties, and fostering racial uplift, nationalism, and social cohesion.
Race and Social Media
Authors: Brown Melissa
Published: September 2017

Social media include Internet‐based platforms used to exchange information between people via computer technology including laptops, tablets, and smart phones. This entry summarizes sociological research on race and social media, including patterns of inter‐racial contact in online dating, diversity of virtual communities, and collective identity formation within antiracist social movements.
Race and Education
Authors: Fox‐Williams Brittany N. , L'Heureux Lewis‐McCoy R.
Published: September 2017

Access to quality education in the United States is unequally distributed along racial and ethnic lines. Since education is a key driver of social mobility, the unequal distribution of high‐quality education means inequality in educational outcomes and future opportunities will likely persist. This entry describes issues pertaining to race and education at primary, secondary, and postsecondary levels, addressing the themes of access, achievement, attainment, and institutional experiences by race and ethnicity.
Race and Masculinity
Authors: Brown Melissa
Published: September 2017

Masculinity refers to the qualities and characteristics ascribed to men. This entry summarizes sociological research on race and masculinity that employs qualitative methods to address research questions. This includes research on Asian men, Latino men, and black men. Findings reveal how hegemonic masculinity affects men of color in the workplace, in the criminal justice system, and over the life course.
Abolitionism
Authors: van Swaaningen René
Published: September 2017

When social scientists use the word abolitionism they mostly refer to the criminological perspective that dismisses penal definitions and punitive responses to criminalized problems, and that proposes their replacement by dispute‐settlement, redress, and social justice. In more general, historical terms it refers to the abolition of state (supported) institutions that are no longer felt to be legitimate. There have been abolitionist movements against slavery, torture, prostitution, capital punishment, and prison.
Abortion as a Social Problem
Authors: Dillon Michele , Dumais Diana
Published: September 2017

Abortion has been legal in the US and in almost all Western European countries since the early 1970s, and in Belgium and Ireland since the early 1990s. Although abortion was legal in the Soviet Union for several years prior to its collapse, abortion politics have subsequently come to the fore in some Eastern European countries (e.g., Poland) as a result of government attempts to restrict it. But abortion is most intensely debated in the US, where legal and congressional initiatives to amend the US Supreme Court's recognition (
Roe v. Wade
, 1973) of a woman's legal right to an abortion continue unabated. Abortion activism is pursued by several religious and secular organizations, and abortion politics dominate presidential and congressional elections and debates over judicial appointments. Grassroots efforts to restrict abortion have met with some success, as subsequent Supreme Court decisions have imposed various restrictions on what many observers as well as pro‐life activists see as America's comparatively permissive law on abortion. Most notably, the imposition of spousal and parental notification requirements seeks to redress the emphasis on abortion as solely being a woman's right to choose and has sought to recognize the relational context of women's lives while not imposing an undue burden on women's freedom. The issue of late‐term abortion is currently one of the most intensely debated aspects of abortion law (even though most abortions are performed in the first trimester of pregnancy).
Accounts
Authors: Zussman Robert
Published: September 2017

An account, as the term is most commonly used in sociology, refers to statements that explain disruptions in the social and moral order. In this sense, accounts are linguistic devices by which actors attempt to reposition themselves as socially acceptable and morally reputable in the face of imputations of deviance or failure. Although the concept of accounts has roots in C. Wright Mills's 1940 article on “Situated Actions and the Vocabularies of Motives,” in Gresham Sykes and David Matza's 1957 article on “Techniques of Neutralization,” and more generally in the work of Erving Goffman, the term itself was introduced in its distinctive sociological sense by Marvin Scott and Sanford Lyman in their 1968 article, entitled simply “Accounts.”
Accounts, Deviant
Authors: Benson Michael L.
Published: September 2017

An account is a statement made by someone to explain unexpected or untoward behavior (Scott & Lyman 1968). For example, Scully and Marolla (1984) interviewed convicted rapists and found that they had a variety of explanations for their behavior. Some men blamed the victim by stating that she had seduced them. Others denied that the woman had not consented. They claimed that she really did want to have sex. Still others contended that the whole episode had been blown out of proportion and was not really very serious. All of these explanations are designed to put the offender in a less unfavorable light, which is the major purpose that accounts are intended to serve. Although accounts are usually developed in reference to a person's own behavior, the behavior in question can be someone else's. Accounts are a universal feature of ordinary interaction, used by most people on a regular basis. Deviant accounts are those developed specifically to account for acts that are widely regarded as deviant and unacceptable to members of a particular social and cultural setting as opposed to acts that are simply unusual or unexpected.
Acculturation
Authors: Dennis Kimya N.
Published: September 2017

Foster (1962) defines acculturation as the process of bringing previously separated and disconnected cultures into contact with one another. This contact must be substantial enough such that “cultural transmission” takes place (Herskovits 1950). Cultural transmission is a key concept that distinguishes acculturation from other terms that are used interchangeably, including assimilation, enculturation, and diffusion. Both Foster and Herskovits highlight the theme of cultural borrowing. The process through which cultural borrowing occurs is of central concern to sociologists and involves between‐group power differentials, cultural artifacts, and group norms and values.
Actor‐Network Theory
Authors: Bowker Geoffrey
Published: September 2017

Actor‐network theory originated in the 1980s as a movement within the sociology of science, centered at the Paris School of Mines. Key developers were Bruno Latour (Latour 1987), Michel Callon, Antoine Hennion, and John Law. It was sharply critical of earlier historical and sociological analyses of science, which had drawn a clear divide between the “inside” of a science (to be analyzed in terms of its adherence or not to a unitary scientific method) and its “outside” (the field of its application).
Addiction and Dependency
Authors: Wincup Emma
Published: September 2017

Terms such as addiction and dependency are frequently used to describe patterns of illicit drug use. However, there are no universal definitions of these terms and they are frequently used inconsistently and interchangeably. As a result, it is it difficult to estimate the number of drug users who can be described as addicted or dependent. Addiction tends to refer to dependence on a particular drug or drugs, which has developed to the extent that it has a severe and harmful impact on an individual drug user. The term implies that the drug user is unable to give up drug use without incurring adverse effects.
Addiction and Dependency
Authors: Wincup Emma
Published: September 2017

Terms such as addiction and dependency are frequently used to describe patterns of illicit drug use. However, there are no universal definitions of these terms and they are frequently used inconsistently and interchangeably. As a result, it is difficult to estimate the number of drug users who can be described as addicted or dependent. Addiction tends to refer to dependence on a particular drug or drugs, which has developed to the extent that it has a severe and harmful impact on an individual drug user. The term implies that the drug user is unable to give up drug use without incurring adverse effects. Whilst ‘addiction’ is widely used by medical professionals to describe the condition experienced by drug users, ‘addict’ has become a derogatory term to refer to individuals who are not only dependent on drugs but also dependent on society since they are typically viewed as welfare dependent and/or offenders. Consequently, Drugscope (a UK‐based independent center for expertise on drugs) suggests the term ‘addiction’ is inexplicably linked to society's reaction to drug users and argues that there is an emerging consensus that the term dependency is preferable. Dependency can refer to physical and/or emotional dependency and drug users may experience one or both forms. Drug users can become physically dependent on drugs, thus continuing with their drug use in order to avoid the physical discomfort of withdrawal. They can also become emotionally dependent on drugs; for example, relying upon drug use to seek pleasure or to avoid pain.
Affect Control Theory
Authors: Robinson Dawn T.
Published: September 2017

Affect control theory (ACT) is an empirically grounded, mathematical theory of social interaction. David R. Heise developed the theory in the early 1970s based on symbolic interactionist insights about the primary importance of language and of the symbolic labeling of situations. Inspired by the pragmatist philosophy of early symbolic interactionists, the theory begins with the premise that people reduce existential uncertainty by developing “working understandings” of their social worlds. The theory presumes that actors label elements of social situations using cultural symbols available to them. After creating this working definition, the theory further argues that actors are motivated to maintain it.
Affirmative Action for Majority Groups
Authors: Yoshimura Mako
Published: September 2017

Affirmative action is generally a policy to give preferential treatment to minority groups (such as women, ethnic minorities, indigenous people, and handicapped persons) who are socially vulnerable and face structural discrimination in a society through the use of measures such as quota systems to provide for equality in employment, education, and so forth. In some countries, however, such as Malaysia, South Africa, and Fiji, there is affirmative action for majority groups that are perceived as being disadvantaged.
Age and Crime
Authors: Plass Peggy S.
Published: September 2017

Of all the social characteristics associated with crime, age is perhaps the most powerful. Age has been found to be a strong predictor of involvement in crime for both victims and offenders. Crime is a phenomenon of the young – risk for involvement drops precipitously with age. While the patterns for both victimization and offending are the same, the explanation for age's effect on each is distinct.
Age, Period, And Cohort Effects
Authors: Glenn Norval D.
Published: September 2017

Age, period, and cohort effects must be considered as a package, because the three kinds of effects are so closely interrelated that it is impossible to deal empirically with one without also dealing with the others. Age effects are the consequences of growing older, either of human individuals or of other entities. Period effects are the consequences of influences that vary through time. And cohort effects are the consequences of being born (or coming into existence by some other means) at different times.
Agenda Setting
Authors: Weinberg Darin
Published: September 2017

The concept of agenda setting has become a term of art in the sociology of social problems largely through research concerning the effects of mass media on public opinion. However, it has also been applied beyond this particular area of research to consider how topics arise as matters of public concern more generally. Thus research on agenda setting focuses on the whole range of forces that influence public opinion on any given issue and the various ways in which issues become topical among policymakers themselves.
Aggression
Authors: Kinney William J.
Published: September 2017

Aggression is any behavior that is directed toward injuring, harming, or inflicting pain on another living being or group of beings. Generally, the victim(s) of aggression must wish to avoid such behavior in order for it to be considered true aggression. Aggression is also categorized according to its ultimate intent.
Hostile aggression
is an aggressive act that results from anger, and is intended to inflict pain or injury because of that anger.
Instrumental aggression
is an aggressive act that is regarded as a means to an end other than pain or injury. For example, an enemy combatant may be subjected to torture in order to extract useful intelligence, though those inflicting the torture may have no real feelings of anger or animosity toward their subject.
Aging, Longitudinal Studies
Authors: Alwin Duane F.
Published: September 2017

Historically, the concept of aging refers to changes to individuals that occur over time resulting from some combination of biological, psychological, and social mechanisms. The life span developmental perspective is a somewhat broader framework, as it considers aging to begin at birth and conceptualizes human development as multidimensional and multidirectional processes of growth involving both gains and losses. From this perspective, human development and aging are embedded in multiple contexts and are conceived of in terms of dynamic processes in which the ontogeny of development interacts with the social environment, a set of interconnected social settings, embedded in a multi‐layered social and cultural context. In addition, the uniqueness of individual biographies and the diversity of life patterns have encouraged a life course approach to human development within the social sciences. The study of the life course is primarily concerned with the social pathways defined by events and transitions experienced by individuals and the sequences of roles and experiences followed by individuals over particular phases of their lives. Influences of development, maturation, and aging are usually identified with changes within individuals linked to their getting older, becoming more mature due to having lived more of life, having experienced a variety of different life course events, or due to physical, cognitive, or other kinds of developmental change. For simplicity, we often refer to all of these types of “within‐person” change as the effects of (or consequences of) aging.
Aging, Mental Health, and Well‐Being
Authors: George Linda K.
Published: September 2017

Social factors are strongly implicated in mental health and well‐being throughout life, including old age. Mental health and subjective well‐being (SWB) are powerful indicators of the how well societies serve their members both individually and collectively. Effective societies not only meet the basic needs of their members, but also provide the conditions and opportunities that sustain emotional health and perceptions that life is good.
Aging and Technology
Authors: Cutler Stephen J.
Published: September 2017

Aging and technology stand in a reciprocal relationship to each other. On the one hand, technological change has numerous implications for older persons and for how they experience the process of aging. On the other hand, individual aging and population aging may be viewed as catalysts shaping the nature of technological development and change.
Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse
Authors: Roman Paul
Published: September 2017

Evidence of the presence of alcohol in human societies extends to the beginning of recorded history. Nearly all human societies have discovered and used some form of beverage alcohol (Heath 2000). Ethanol, the genre of alcohol consumed by humans, occurs as a natural product of the fermentation of common foods. In decaying fruit, sugar converts to ethanol, and likewise with grain and potatoes, where decay and fermentation move from starch to sugar to ethanol. Thus ethanol's production and discovery of its psychoactive effects likely occurred accidentally when humans attempted to store food for later consumption. The discovery of the psychoactive effects of this substance likely led quite quickly to the deliberate production of alcoholic beverages.
Alienation
Authors: Hodson Randy
Published: September 2017

Alienation is the social and psychological separation between oneself and one's life experiences. Alienation is a concept originally applied to work and work settings but today is also used to characterize separation from the political sphere of society. To be alienated is to live in a society but not to feel that one is a part of its ongoing activities.
Alliances
Authors: Gudergan Siegfried P.
Published: September 2017

The concept of alliance has been used widely in a variety of contexts with definitions generally being discipline‐bound. Theoretical and empirical research into alliances has had extensive interdisciplinary appeal. Research into alliances has been conducted in a multitude of disciplines, including sociology, psychology, economics, political science, law, strategic management, and organizational behavior. The word alliance has a set of meanings, including a confederation described as the act of forming an alliance; a formal agreement establishing an association or alliance between nations or other groups to achieve a particular aim; a coalition, being an organization of people, nations, or businesses involved in a pact or treaty; a bond, being a connection based on kinship or common interest; and a confederation as a state of being allied or confederated. We define alliances as a unified effort involving two or more organizations, groups, or individuals to achieve common goals with respect to a particular issue. This view of alliances is closely related to its sociological roots and suggests that an alliance has a number of defining features. First, an alliance brings together two or more individual parties – whether people or organizations. Second, an alliance requires these parties to be interconnected in some way with resource dependencies. Interconnectedness is a state of being connected reciprocally. Third, the alliance must share common goals, interests, or values. Fourth, there is an assumption that the individual parties maintain at least some level of autonomy.
Alliances (Racial/Ethnic)
Authors: Bowser Benjamin P.
Published: September 2017

An alliance is “a close association for a common objective” or “for mutual benefit,” synonymous with the idea of a league, a confederacy, or a union (Friend & Guralnik 1960). One will find research on alliances between business organizations and between clients and therapists in psychotherapy. Here the focus is on alliances in social movements. Despite the importance of alliances in the success of any social movement, there is no tradition of focused research on the topic. For example, in social science research in the US, it is touched on in now classic social movement studies such as Ted Gurr's
Why Men Rebel
(1970), Anthony Oberschall's
Social Conflict and Social Movements
(1973), and Francis Piven and R. Cloward's
Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail
(1977). Ralf Dahrendorf in
Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society
(1954) explored the idea of alliances only briefly while explaining why conflict has not happened as Karl Marx predicted in the post‐World War II period. One central objective of this work is to present the underlying processes and principles by which social movements mobilize, are sustained, and then demobilize.
Ambivalence
Authors: Yair Gad
Published: September 2017

Ambivalence denotes contrasting commitments and orientations; it refers to simultaneous conflicting feelings toward a person or an object; and it is commonly used to describe and explain the hesitance and uncertainty caused by the juxtaposition between contradictory values, preferences, and expectations. Lay‐person use follows intuitive psychological explanations which refer to ambivalence interchangeably with personal hesitation, confusion, indeterminacy, and agitation. In contrast, sociological use suggests that although ambivalence is a bi‐polar, subjective experience, its causes are social and hence understandable and predictable. True, most sociological uses of the term maintain its conflictual denotations, but this volatile experience is treated as the result of contrasting social pressures exerted on actors.
American Sociological Association
Authors: Hill Michael R.
Published: September 2017

The American Sociological Association (ASA) is currently the largest and most influential membership organization of professional sociologists in the US. The ASA began its organizational life in 1905 when a small group of self‐selected scholars representing several existing scholarly organizations (including the American Economic Association, the American Historical Association, and the American Political Science Association) proposed a separate and independent American Sociological Society (ASS) (“Organization of the American Sociological Society” 1906). The first ASS annual meeting convened December 27–29, 1906, in Providence, Rhode Island, with 115 members and a full program of scholarly papers. In 1959 the organization's name was formally changed from the American Sociological Society to the American Sociological Association. As of 2004, the ASA reported 13,715 paid members and an investment portfolio valued at $7.1 million.
Anarchism
Authors: El‐Ojeili Chamsy
Published: September 2017

Anarchism signifies the condition of being without rule. Anarchism, then, has often been equated with chaos. This interpretation was lent weight by the period of anarchist “propaganda by deed” towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most anarchists, though, their political allegiances involve opposition to the intrusiveness, destructiveness, and artificiality of state authority, the rejection of all forms of domination and hierarchy, and the desire to construct a social order based on free association. Anarchism is, however, a heterogeneous political field, containing a host of variations – for instance, organization versus spontaneity, peaceful transition versus violence, individualist versus collectivist means and ends, romanticism versus science, and existential versus structural critique of domination.
Anglo‐Conformity
Authors: Travis Toni‐Michelle C.
Published: September 2017

As a nation founded by European immigrants, the United States had to grapple with the concept of what it means to be an American. In seeking to become American, many immigrants adopted one model of assimilation, Anglo‐conformity. This model promoted subordination of immigrant cultural values and customs to American holidays, civic rituals, and the English language which was stressed by the public school system. Even in colonial times multiple cultures were evident, although the dominant culture was British with the values of speaking English, governing based on common law, and practicing Protestant Christian beliefs. The goal was to emulate the cultural traits of white Anglo‐Saxon Protestants (WASPS).
Animal Rights Movements
Authors: Garner Robert
Published: September 2017

Concern for the rights of animals dates back to at least the nineteenth century, but the modern animal rights movement emerged in the 1970s, initially in Britain. It can be distinguished from a more moderate concern for animal welfare, both in terms of objectives and strategy. Reasons for the rise of the animal rights movement include factors such as affluence, changes in the occupational structure, and the influence of gender that are only indirectly related to the public's concern for animals and what is done to them. More specific explanatory variables include the intellectual ballast provided by academic philosophers, and the greater awareness of what is done to animals and the ways in which they can suffer.
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 within themselves 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 largely 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 – to be joined by the rising racial and political strains.
Assimilation
Authors: Alba Richard , Nee Victor
Published: September 2017

Assimilation is reemerging as a core concept for comprehending the long‐run consequences of immigration, both for the immigrants and their descendants and for the society that receives them.
Attraction
Authors: Rogalin Christabel L. , Conlon Bridget
Published: September 2017

Attraction is a positive attitude one holds for another person. Attraction also refers to the positive behaviors an individual displays in response to another person over a prolonged period of time. Positive behaviors can include the experience of positive emotions or feelings in conjunction with the other, enhancing the welfare of the other, and trying to maintain close proximity to the other. Little work has been done to expand on the theoretical construct of attraction. Rather, the literature has tended to address the question of why people are attracted to each other and why people find some people more attractive than others.
Attribution Theory
Authors: Badahdah Abdallah M.
Published: September 2017

As interest in consistency theories waned in the 1960s, new approaches to cognitive research emerged. In the 1970s, and to a lesser extent in the 1980s, 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.
Authoritarianism
Authors: Palma Esperanza
Published: September 2017

The concept of authoritarianism has been used mainly to refer to a type of authority whose power is exercised within diffuse legal, institutional, or de facto boundaries that easily leads to arbitrary acts against groups and individuals. Those who are in power are not accountable to constituencies and public policy does not derive from social consent.
Authoritarianism
Authors: Palma Esperanza
Published: September 2017

Since the 1970s systematic research on authoritarianism within comparative politics has been developed. Within this field, authoritarianism has been understood as a modern type of political regime that contains personal dictatorships, military governments, and hegemonic parties. After the third wave of democracy, which started by the end of last century, different research agendas were outlined that included the relationship between the type of authoritarianism and the paths to democracy, the conditions of regime change, the risks of breakdown in newly established democracies, and the possibilities of democratic consolidation. More recently, debates on authoritarianism have been revitalized by the Arab Spring and the new conflicts opened up by regime breakdown and by a new research agenda on the persistence of authoritarian forms of power at the subnational level in new democracies, in particular in Latin America.
Authority and Legitimacy
Authors: Turner Stephen , MCreery Gregory
Published: September 2017

Authority is often defined as legitimate power, and contrasted to pure power. In the case of legitimate power, 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.
Anarchism and Urban Planning
Authors: Tsekeris Charalambos , Tsekeris Theodore
Published: September 2017

In general terms, anarchism has been very influential on urban planning. Its most significant influence is particularly associated with the non‐violent and reformist process of social transformation suggested within the theories of Kropotkin and Proudhon. On the one hand, the “Garden City” movement and the plans for metropolitan decentralization are strongly related to Kropotkin's innovative ideas about completely autonomous (self‐governed) and self‐sufficient communities (Hall 1996). On the other hand, the radical ideal of
regionalism
, as formed by Proudhon (1890), is closely connected to modern territorial struggles for regional self‐determination, as well as to a specific tradition within regional planning that looks upon regions as
physico‐cultural entities
.