bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Crime
Authors: Whitehead John T.
Published: September 2017

Criminologists differ on how they define crime. One definition is a legal definition: crime is a violation of the criminal law. Edwin Sutherland and Donald Cressey (1960) call this the conventional definition of crime because it is the commonly used definition. They add that it is typical to distinguish a crime from a tort: a crime is a violation against the state whereas a tort is a violation against an individual and the civil law. Hence in criminal law the charge readsState of ______v. John Doewhile in civil court it isMary Smith v. John Doe. A dramatic example of crime versus tort occurred in one of the best‐known crimes of the twentieth century: the O.J. Simpson matter. In criminal court he was acquitted of the crime of murder but he was found civilly liable for wrongful death in civil court. Two such trials do not violate the constitutional protection against double jeopardy (being tried twice for the same crime), because criminal and civil court are considered two completely distinct systems and civil court carries no stigma of a criminal conviction.
Crime, Corporate
Authors: Geis Gilbert
Published: September 2017

Corporate crime involves organizational wrongdoing, such as anti‐trust violations, false earnings statements, and misleading advertising. The doctrine of corporate crime permits the justice system to deal with an organization as if it were a real person, despite the fact that, unlike humanity itself, a corporation can have an indefinite life span and possesses no corporeal substance that can be hauled before a court. In the early 2000s, corporate lawbreaking captured media headlines when scandals erupted that involved Enron, Adelphia, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, and a number of other Fortune 500 businesses, though the invasion of Iraq soon thereafter relegated these cases to a secondary status in public consciousness.
Crime, Social Control Theory of
Authors: Orcutt James D.
Published: September 2017

Social control theory has origins in the early works of the moral and utilitarian philosophers. The social control theory of crime is fundamentally a theory of conformity, searching for the reasons why people conform and examining the social bonds and psychological controls which maintain that conformity. When these controlling influences are weak, individuals are freer to deviate from legal and moral norms.
Culture, Economy and
Authors: Fourcade‐Gourinchas Marion
Published: September 2017

In traditional academic discourse, culture and economy have long been regarded as separate analytical spheres: on the one hand, the realm of shared cognitions, norms, and symbols, studied by anthropologists; on the other hand, the realm of self‐interest, where economists reign supreme. Though the two disciplines overlap occasionally (in economic anthropology mainly), radical differences in the conceptual and methodological routes each field followed during the twentieth century have prevented any sort of meaningful exchange.
Culture Jamming
Authors: Handelman Jay M. , Kozinets Robert V.
Published: September 2017

Culture jamming refers to an organized, social activist effort that aims to counter the bombardment of consumption‐oriented messages in the mass media. For Habermas (1985), an ideal speech situation is one in which all participants within a public space are empowered to reach consensus on issues of mutual importance through engagement in symmetrical discourse. Culture jammers see contemporary public space as filled with distorted communications, and seek to right the situation. These activists see fair and accessible public discourse as eroded by a mass media controlled by corporations, whose sponsored advertising has become the primary propagandist supporting the social logic of consumption culture. Culture jamming, then, is consumer culture jamming. The activists seek to break through the wall of corporate controlled, distorted, asymmetrical public discourse, awakening people from the hegemonic culture where the logic of consumption permeates all aspects of their lived experience (Rumbo 2002).
Culture, Nature and
Authors: Mukerji Chandra
Published: September 2017

There is a movement among sociologists and social critics to include the built environment and physical bodies in social analysis, and to think seriously about the ways that locations and creatures (including people) matter to group life. Part of this comes from anthropological leanings in sociology, and the tradition of thick description that includes discussions of chickens and back streets as well as group life. Part of it is motivated by feminist theory, and the determination to keep bodies and gender cultures in social analysis. Not only the settings for social life but also the human form itself is a cultural artifact made from natural materials. Part of the interest in cultures of nature also comes from Foucault. It is clear that power founded in the built environment provides an almost unnoticed but consequential regulatory mechanism.
Culture, Organizations and
Authors: Chan Andrew
Published: September 2017

Culture in organizations refers to the values, norms, and patterns of action that characterize the social relationships within formal organizations. Jaques (1951) first described the changing culture of a factory, defining it as the customary or traditional ways of doing things, which are shared to a greater or lesser extent by all members of the organization and which new members must learn and at least partially accept in order to be accepted into the service of the firm.
Culture, the State and
Authors: Mukerji Chandra
Published: September 2017

Studies of culture and the state focus on a range of relationships between modern political regimes and patterns of symbolic and material life. They reveal the diverse ways that power works through culture, and provide means for a better understanding of how power is accumulated, organized, and deployed in or around state systems.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Authors: Dean Paul
Published: September 2017

The fundamental idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) “is that business and society are interwoven rather than distinct entities” and that businesses must therefore meet particular societal expectations regarding their social, environmental, and economic activities (Wood 1991: 695). The concept refers to the discourses, practices, policy initiatives, and disciplines that shape these societal expectations, internal value systems, voluntary practices of corporations, and legal requirements pertaining to those activities. Because CSR (or corporate citizenship, corporate social performance) specifically refers to corporations, the abbreviated term “social responsibilities” has also been used to refer to the activities and discourses of profit‐seeking entities more generally (Carroll 1999).
Corporate Social Responsibility
Authors: Dean Paul , Ames Miranda
Published: September 2017

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the idea that businesses must consider the social and environmental impacts of their practices and meet certain societal expectations regarding those impacts. This entry describes the historical context of this idea, from early conceptions of the corporation to the contemporary CSR, which exists in the context of global capitalism. It outlines four institutionalized forms of CSR: socially responsible investing, corporate codes of conduct, social certifications, and legal regulations. The entry concludes with a discussion of the contested impacts of CSR.
Cosmetic Surgery
Authors: Smirnova Michelle
Published: September 2017

In the postmodern world, the body has transcended its former existence as a fixed, immutable object, into something that is pliable, something with the potential for the subject inside to manipulate as a means of self‐expression. At the same time though, the body remains a site where truths are inscribed by various disciplinary institutions, labeled and categorized as normal or pathological, healthy or diseased (Foucault 1977). As such, cosmetic surgery – the ability to alter this body – sits at the crux of this debate: perceived as a sort of freedom, yet “the freedom gained from cosmetic surgery is contained within a strict regime and demands a heavy price … [of] homogeneity and an abandonment of older, or other forms of being” (Jones 2004). Whether or not the cosmetic surgery patient is a “cultural dupe” or an “empowered prosumer,” her/his actions are strongly motivated by a particular discourse which has labeled and defined some bodies as desirable and others as undesirable.
Dangerousness
Authors: Debuyst Christian
Published: September 2017

The term dangerousness is a neologism, invented in the context of the Italian positivist school of criminology and especially attributed to Garofalo, who, in the framework of his bio‐psychological approach to the criminal, considered taking into account the essential element of
temebilita
, or the constant and active perversity of the criminal and the extent to which one is afraid of him based on this characteristic (Garofalo 1905; see also Kinberg 1959: 44–5). Garafalo replaced this older term with the concept of
periculosita
, which means dangerousness, and reformulated its definition: the capacity of an individual to adapt, or to resist adapting, to social demands. In this definition the American criminologist F. A Allen (1960) perceived the fundamental objective of Garafalo: the elimination from society of those who, because of a moral abnormality, are not capable of making social adjustments.
Demographic Techniques: Event History Methods
Authors: Martin Steven
Published: September 2017

Event history analysis is a term used in sociology for numerous statistical methods that use information about
whether
and
when
an individual experiences an event. Almost any social phenomenon can be thought of as an event that happens to an individual, whether that individual is (for example) a woman having a third child, a city experiencing a race riot, or a state legislature passing women's suffrage. It is not surprising, then, that as computer software has made event history techniques easier to use since the 1980s, researchers have found many imaginative applications for these techniques.
Denomination
Authors: Swatos William H.
Published: September 2017

The term denomination was innovated in the late seventeenth century by those groups of Christians in England who dissented from the established Church of England, but considered themselves loyal to the British state and recognized the monarch as having rights with respect to the Church of England. In 1702, specifically, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Congregationalist clergy formed “the body of the Dissenting Ministers of the Three Denominations in and about the City of London.” The term was introduced to counter the pejorative term sect, which in popular usage carried a sense not only of deviant or undesirable practices, but also, as sectaries, implied political radicalism.Denominationis now used in pluralist societies for those forms of organized religious expression that generally support the established social order and are mutually tolerant of each other's practices.
Department Store
Authors: Murphy Wendy A. Wiedenhoft
Published: September 2017

Department stores, by definition, offer a large variety of merchandise organized into specialty departments under one roof. The first department stores were unique not simply because of the variety of goods they offered, but because their policies were consumercentric. Department stores instituted fixed prices – often advertised in newspapers – so that consumers would not have to engage in the time‐consuming practice of haggling over the cost of the goods that they purchased. Catering to the whims of consumers, department stores established the “no questions asked” policy of merchandise exchanges and refunds, money‐back guarantees on purchased products, and free delivery. The first department stores offered cooking and knitting classes and were often “Saturday bankers,” cashing checks when banks were closed. Other consumercentric policies included personal attention by sales clerks and clothing alterations. These policies engendered consumer loyalty and trust, as did the participation by department store owners in civic life (Rosenberg, 1985; Leach, 1993).
Derrida, Jacques (1930–2004)
Authors: Lipscomb Michael
Published: September 2017

Jacques Derrida was an Algerian‐born philosopher remembered for his development of deconstruction, an approach to thinking that seeks carefully to analyze signifying objects in terms of the differences that are constitutive of those objects. Typically, this deconstructive approach proceeds through a close analysis of the ambivalent and marginal terms that help secure the bounded understanding of a text, concept, or phenomenon, but which cannot be reduced to a final, stable meaning intended by the author or by orthodox interpretation.
Derrida,Jacques (1930–2004)
Authors: Lipscomb Michael
Published: September 2017

Jacques Derrida was an Algerian‐born philosopher remembered for his development of deconstruction, an approach to thinking that seeks to carefully analyze signifying objects in terms of the differences that are constitutive of those objects. Typically, this deconstructive approach proceeds through a close analysis of the ambivalent and marginal terms that help secure the bounded understanding of a text, concept, or phenomenon, but which cannot be reduced to a final, stable meaning intended by the author or by orthodox interpretation.
Descriptive Statistics
Authors: Lahm Karen
Published: September 2017

Descriptive statistics, also known as univariate statistics, are most often used to describe the distribution of a variable or variables in a sample. A distribution of a variable can be thought of as all of the individual scores or categories of a variable contained in a sample or population. For example, if the variable being measured in a sample of 100 people is age, then the distribution for the age variable would be all of the 100 separate ages of the people contained in the sample.
Deterrence Theory
Authors: Stafford Mark , Deibert Gini
Published: September 2017

Deterrence theory can be traced to such early utilitarians as Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham (Johnson & Wolfe 2003). The underlying idea is that people will commit crimes to the extent they are more pleasurable than painful. Certain, severe, and swift legal punishments increase the pain for crimes and, thereby, can deter people from committing them.
Deviance, Crime and
Authors: Goode Erich , Thio Alex
Published: September 2017

The study of deviance is sometimes confused with criminology, or the study of crime. Sociologists define deviance as the violation of a norm which is likely to generate a negative reaction, such as censure, condemnation, punishment, hostility, or stigma. Stigmatized persons are socially disvalued and discredited by those who accept conventional norms. Norms apply to behavior (the way one acts), physical characteristics (the way one looks), beliefs (what one believes) – indeed, to any dimension along which people can and do evaluate one another. And norms are relevant to specific contexts, whether to the society at large or to specific groups, social circles, or units within the society. Hence, a particular action may be condemned in one society but not another, one community but not another, one group but not another. Indeed, what is deviant in one collectivity may be regarded as praiseworthy in another. Sociologists always ask the question, “Deviant towhom?” Without reference to a specific collectivity, oraudience, the concept of deviance is meaningless. Hence, deviance is by its very naturerelativistic, not only with respect to cross‐cultural comparisons, but also when comparing one collectivity in the same society with another.
Disaster Tourism
Authors: Gotham Kevin Fox
Published: September 2017

Disaster tourism is the circulation of people to disaster‐affected places to visually consume trauma, devastation, and catastrophe. Examples of disaster tourism include the use of guided tours to concentration camps in Germany, the World Trade Center in New York City, flooded neighborhoods in New Orleans, and war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Disaster tourism also implies intent and purpose on the part of the traveling consumer. The regular tourist travels to disaster sites for the purpose of learning and gaining knowledge and information. A disaster tourist, in contrast, is seeking some sort of emotional thrill or “pleasure” and is not interested in learning, education, or gaining wisdom
per se
.
Dark Tourism and Disaster Tourism
Authors: Gotham Kevin Fox
Published: September 2017

Dark tourism is the circulation of people to places characterized by distress, atrocity, or sadness and pain. As a more specific component of dark tourism, “disaster tourism” denotes situations where the tourism product is generated within, and from, the aftermath of a major disaster or traumatic event. Examples of dark tourism include guided tours to Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone in the Ukraine, to holocaust concentration camps in Europe, to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to battlefield sites. Sites of disaster tourism are places such as the World Trade Center in New York City and flooded neighborhoods in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. These and other examples display the widespread diversity of dark‐related and disaster‐related attractions (Faulkner, 2013). Researchers have uncovered a variety of perceptions and experiences related to disaster tourism and disaster tourism sites, and resident attitudes vary considerably, depending on the length of their immersion into the area.
Diderot effect
Authors: Lorenzen Janet A.
Published: September 2017

Grant McCracken, in his exploration of the connections between cultural anthropology and consumer behavior, coined the term “the Diderot effect” (McCracken 1986, 1988). The Diderot effect is named after French philosopher Denis Diderot (1713–84), who wrote an essay entitled “Regrets on Parting with my Old Dressing Gown: Or a Warning to Those Who Have More Taste than Money” (1964 [1772]). Diderot recounts receiving a new dressing gown as a gift from a friend and how it compelled him to redecorate his entire study. The new dressing gown made everything in the room look old and shabby by comparison and item by item everything was replaced. Diderot feels this unnecessary process would never have started if his friend hadn't given him the new dressing gown – a gift he now regrets. Established consumption patterns, undisturbed, exert a kind of inertia that resists any major change. Once interrupted, the unity of consumption patterns becomes a mechanism that seeks to rebalance itself: thus Diderot purchased all new items to match his new dressing gown.
Deviance Processing Agencies
Authors: Rigakos George S. , Wright Lisa
Published: September 2017

Deviance processing agencies refers to a wide gamut of institutions and agencies, both public and private, that are involved in the identification, vetting, and dispensation of populations considered at risk or dangerous, and that presumably require monitoring and surveillance to mitigate potential harms. Deviance processing agencies have been considered in a more comprehensive manner since the 1960s and 1970s and constitute a central focus of inquiry for social theorists interested in governmentality, risk, and social control. During the antiwar student protests and the radicalization of academia in the 1960s and 1970s, sociologists and criminologists employed critical approaches often born out of a Marxian orientation (e.g., Spitzer, 1975) to critically analyze developments in police practices, punitive legal measures, and inhumane prison conditions. They offered explanations of repressive state practices (Cooper
et al.
, 1975) against dissidents and socially constructed deviants within the context of managing crises of capitalist legitimacy, the symbolic importance of the labeling process, and the inherently biased function of legal norms (Quinney, 1974). By the 1980s, a rather substantial body of scholarly work tied to an evolving critical criminology movement was analyzing and deconstructing the practices of criminal justice agencies, particularly in the context of rising crime rates, mass imprisonment, and punitive neo conservative crime control policies (Lowman, Menzies, and Palys, 1987).
Deviance, Research Methods
Authors: Grills Scott
Published: September 2017

It is in part through their methodologies that sociological studies of deviance are distinguished from other disciplinary interests (e.g., philosophical, legal) in troublesome or otherwise offensive aspects of human group life. Questions of method are fundamentally questions related to our theories of knowing: how we claim to know what we know, how we go about the work of supporting our knowledge claims, and how we construct the intersubjective realities we share. The process of doing research involves a critical assessment of our theories of the social world in light of the empirical world that we are claiming to represent.
D
ewey,
J
ohn (1859–1952)
Authors: Jacobs Mark D.
Published: September 2017

John Dewey was perhaps the most prominent
US
public philosopher over the course of his long career. Along with his students and colleagues, he introduced pragmatism into American sociology. He was a seminal figure in social psychology, the sociology of education, urban sociology, and the sociology of culture. His work continues to guide sociologists in the present day, especially those engaging the new “public sociology.”
Difference
Authors: Ramji Hasmita
Published: September 2017

The concept of difference seeks to recognize social diversity. Its growing profile is underpinned by a refiguration of the discourses of “multi,” “commonality,” and “universalism” in a variety of arenas and forms. Spurred by the postmodern turn, difference has been a key way to problematize universal categories such as “women” and “men.” An analysis of gender, race, and other categories of difference points to the multilayered and fractured construction of collective and individual identities. The current interest in difference has in part been because of a belief that as a concept it can illuminate social diversity, but also in part because of its importance in recent recognition claims. Debates here have highlighted the relational underpinnings of diversity. What has attracted attention is “what are significant markers of difference in society” and “how are they made so”? The creation of difference on the basis of race, gender, or class at social, economic, and political levels is crucial, not as individual characteristics but insofar as they are primary organizing principles of a society which locates and positions groups within opportunity structures. They can unlock how social inequality is created.
Digital
Authors: Goode Luke
Published: September 2017

To understand the significance of the term “digital,” we must place it alongside its “other” – the term “analogue.” The technical distinction between these terms is relatively straightforward. Each signifies a different method by which data are captured, transported, processed, distributed, and represented, that is, the means by which they aremediated. Whilst analogue media “encode” data using “traces” – such as light burnt on to chemical film stock, or grooves cut into vinyl records – whose patterns have a physical connection to the source data, digital media translate source data into strings of binary computer code lacking that physical connection. Like the written word, digital code is an “arbitrary” signifier. Unlike the written word, however, it is a system comprising just two “symbols” (the “on” and “off” states of an electrical current), making it unreadable by human beings (it first has to be translated back into analogue forms such as light or sound waves) and robust enough to encode many different types of data simultaneously, including words, images, and sounds.
Divisions of Household Labor
Authors: Adams Michele
Published: September 2017

Division of household labor refers to the allocation of duties implicated in keeping a family running smoothly in the private sphere, including tasks such as cleaning, cooking, laundry, and childcare. Traditionally, in the public sphere, men were the family breadwinners, while in the private sphere women were the housework experts, doing between three fourths and two thirds of routine household labor. Breadwinning is paid, valued, and empowering; housework is unpaid, devalued, and disempowering and the disadvantages accruing to women doing the bulk of the housework shade over into their paid labor force participation. Over the course of the twentieth century, women's housework contribution declined while their labor force participation increased, and men's household labor contribution increased, even as women continued to do the majority of household labor. Time availability, relative resources, and gender ideology are three popular theoretical explanations for the gender gap in household contribution at the family level, while new theoretical perspectives examine work–family and gender policy at the national level as contexts within which the family distribution of household labor is embedded.
Doing Gender
Authors: Fenstermaker Sarah
Published: September 2017

Candace West and Don Zimmerman introduced the concept “doing gender” in an article of the same title in 1987. They were the first to articulate an
ethnomethodological
perspective on the creation and affirmation of gender inequality between males and females in western society. The purview of ethnomethodology includes the study of the socially managed accomplishments of all aspects of life that are treated as objective, unchanging, and transsituational. West and Zimmerman's treatment of gender began by making problematic the prevailing cultural perspective: (1) female and male represent naturally defined categories of being that are derived from mutually exclusive (and easily distinguished) reproductive functions, and which result in distinctively different psychological and behavioral proclivities; (2) such divisions are rooted in that biological nature, which makes them both fundamental and enduring; (3) these essential differences between masculine and feminine are adequately reflected in the myriad differences observed between women and men and the social arrangements that solidify around them.
Domestic Violence
Authors: Cyr Carmody Dianne
Published: September 2017

Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive behavior designed to exert power and control over a person in an intimate relationship through the use of intimidating, threatening, harmful, or harassing behavior (Dutton 1995). This rather broad definition includes multiple forms of abuse: physical, sexual, and emotional or psychological. There is a lack of agreement about what should be included in the definition of domestic violence. Some argue for a broad definition that includes sexual and emotional harm, like the one above, while others limit their definition to actions that result in physical injury.
Dramaturgy
Authors: Manning Peter K.
Published: September 2017

Dramaturgy is a sociological term referring to a metaphorical perspective on social life that sees interaction as a performance for an audience. When used sociologically, dramaturgy points to a family of words associated with the idea of being sensitive to and analyzing performances that selectively emphasize some features of action to convey an impression. Dramaturgy is a metaperspective that makes sense of action at several levels whether it is carried out by organizations, groups, or other social actors or acting units. It emphasizes the role of symbols, audience feedback, and the validation of actions. The work of Erving Goffman, notably,The Presentation of Self in Everyday life, is the primary source for these ideas and has been subject to debate and criticism.
Drugs and the Law
Authors: Payne Brian K.
Published: September 2017

At the broadest level, law can be defined as a written policy designed to control human behavior. Drug laws, then, are written policies designed to control drug‐using behaviors. The aggressive response to drug‐using behaviors, however, is a relatively modern phenomenon in the United States. A series of early American drug laws precipitated current efforts to control drug‐related behaviors. These laws included the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914, and the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. In fact, between the early 1900s and 1969, hundreds of federal drug laws were passed in the United States.
Dual Labor Markets
Authors: Elger Tony
Published: September 2017

The concept of dual labor markets (DLM) was developed by institutionalist economists critical of dominant economic analyses of labor market inequalities, then fed into economic sociology. Against neoclassical economic models of the allocation of workers across a spectrum of jobs according to individual skills and preferences, DLM emphasized that management decisions and organizational structures distinguished different
categories
of workers and generated an enduring division between primary and secondary segments governed by distinctive logics. Many white male workers were favored for “primary” jobs with organizational job ladders, which offered training, promotion, pay gains, and job security within “internal labor markets” governed by organizational rules. Meanwhile women, minority ethnic groups, and migrants usually had access to insecure, low‐paid jobs without internal training or promotion prospects, so were confined to external labor markets constituted by these “secondary” jobs.
Divorce
Authors: Bahr Stephen J.
Published: September 2017

A major social trend during the past century has been an increase in the divorce rate. In the United States, about one half of all marriages end in divorce. Divorce risk factors include teenage marriage, premarital cohabitation, poverty, unemployment, parental divorce, infidelity, alcohol and drug abuse, weak marital commitment, high levels of conflict, and domestic violence. Compared with married adults, divorced persons tend to have more economic hardship, health problems, and mortality, and lower psychological well‐being. Divorce appears to have a significant impact on well‐being that is not explained by selection. Compared to children with two biological parents, children of divorced parents don't do as well in school and are more likely to use drugs, be sexually active, and commit delinquent acts. As adults, they are not as close to their parents and are more likely themselves to divorce.
Economic Sociology: Classical Political Economic Perspectives
Authors: Zafirovski Milan
Published: September 2017

Classical political economy represents the earliest phase in the development of economics spanning the late eighteenth century to the second half of the nineteenth century since Adam Smith and his economic work the
Wealth of Nations
(preceded by his philosophical and psychological
Theory of Moral Sentiments)
. In addition to Smith, as the widely recognized founder, its other key members include David Ricardo, Jean‐Baptiste Say, Thomas Malthus, William Senior, Augustine Cournot, John S. Mill, Karl Marx, and John Cairnes. Classical political economy is typically defined by its representatives as the science of the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of wealth.
Economy, Culture and
Authors: Fourcade‐Gourinchas Marion
Published: September 2017

In traditional academic discourse, “culture” and “economy” have long been regarded as separate analytical spheres: on the one hand, the realm of shared cognitions, norms, and symbols, studied by anthropologists; on the other, the realm of self‐interest, where economists reign supreme. Though the two disciplines overlap occasionally (in economic anthropology mainly), radical differences in the conceptual and methodological routes each field followed during the twentieth century have prevented any sort of meaningful interaction.
Education
Authors: Mueller Anna S. , Pattison Evangeleen
Published: September 2017

Education plays a fundamental role in society, both because it determines individuals' life chances and because it has the power to reproduce or ameliorate inequality in society. In this entry, research within the sociology of education is reviewed that examines both how schools are shaped by the society in which they are embedded and how schools affect the distribution of opportunities and the intergenerational transmission of social status. The entry begins by discussing theoretical perspectives on education, and then discusses the beginnings of universal education and how universal education varies between developed and developing countries. Finally, the major developments for sociological research on education are reviewed, with an emphasis on explanations for inequality in educational opportunities, including school desegregation, public versus private schooling, charter schools, tracking, summer learning gaps, social and cultural capital, the role of adolescent culture in achievement, and issues related to higher education. Though the structure of education and the distribution of educational opportunities in society continue to evolve as economies and cultures shift, education plays a pivotal role in perpetuating socioeconomic inequality and, for the lucky few, providing opportunities for social mobility.
Educational Attainment
Authors: Bills David B.
Published: September 2017

Educational attainment refers to the highest level of formal education completed by the members of a population. Because national systems of education differ greatly from one another, the measurement of educational attainment is typically restricted to education completed in the country where the education was received (Siegel & Swanson 2004: 220), although researchers have developed various metrics to translate levels of completed schooling across countries (Kerckhoff & Dylan 1999). Educational attainment is sometimes recorded as the number of years of schooling that individuals have completed, but is more often measured as the highest grade or highest level completed. The distinction between years of schooling and highest level completed is particularly important in highly schooled and highly economically developed societies in which primary and secondary schooling are virtually universal. Moreover, in highly economically developed societies distinctions at the upper levels of the educational distribution are of more social consequence than are distinctions expressed simply in years of schooling.
Elder Care
Authors: Keating Norah , Donalds Shanika
Published: September 2017

Elder care is assistance provided to an older adult because of that person's chronic health problem or disability. Care tasks may include household work, indoor and outdoor home maintenance, banking and financial management, personal care, and care management. In developed countries, elder care is most often provided to those in advanced age as the onset of age‐related chronic illnesses is prevalent after the age of 75. Most people in residential (nursing home) settings are over the age of 80. Increasingly, elder care is also provided to people who have grown old with long term disabilities.
Elective Affinity
Authors: (Hans) Bakker J.I.
Published: September 2017

Weber argues that there is an “inner affinity” (
innere Verwandtschaft
) between several things, especially between (1) a this‐worldly asceticism of sects (e.g., Quakers, Mennonites) and (2) the underlying “spirit” (
Geist
) of modern capitalism. Rather than hedonism, among Protestants there is an ascetic outlook, an estrangement from joy, as indicated by Benjamin Franklin's maxims. The modifier “elective” is a vestige from Albertus Magnus, Scholasticism, Galileo, and the Latin of chemists such as T.O. Bergman:
attractio electiva simplex
or
affinitas electiva
. On its own, the German term
Verwandtschaft
means “affinity,” but the classical Latin phrase “elective affinity” had an impact on Goethe (Adler, 1990). The term “elective affinity” (
Wahlverwandtschaft
) became a title for one of Goethe's romantic novels about marriage and “chemical” erotic attraction.
Elementary Theory
Authors: Emanuelson Pamela
Published: September 2017

Consistent with the classical theories of Marx, Weber, and Simmel, elementary theory is a multilevel theory of interaction in social relations. For example, elementary theory (hereafter ET) predicts power exercise, who benefits in social relations such as exchange, coercion, and conflict. ET's actor‐level assumptions are (1) that actors pursue valued states called interests within social relations and (2) that an actor's interests can be inferred from the social relations and structures in which activity occurs. On a structural level, ET embeds social relations in social structures, which consist of two or more connected social relations. Social structures are in turn characterized by rules and restrictions, including but not limited to rules delimiting the maximum and minimum number of exchanges at a position and rules mandating the sequence of social interaction across a structure. ET makes predictions in light of the interrelations among relational and structural conditions and actor's interests.
Elias, Norbert (1897–1990)
Authors: Ritzer George , Ryan J. Michael
Published: September 2017

Norbert Elias was born in Breslau, Germany in 1897. He was the son of a small manufacturer and was brought up in comfortable surroundings. After serving in the German Army during World War I, Elias returned home to study medicine and philosophy at the University of Breslau. It was his study of medicine that gave him a sense of the interconnections among the various parts of the human body that would be so important to shaping his understanding of human interconnections – what he would term figurations. Elias received his PhD in 1924 and then went to Heidelberg, where he become very actively involved in sociology circles, most notably one headed by Marianne Weber. He also became friend and assistant to Karl Mannheim. This relationship led Elias to follow Mannheim as his official assistant to the University of Frankfurt in 1930.
Ellis, Havelock (1859–1939)
Authors: Weeks Jeffrey
Published: September 2017

Havelock Ellis, editor, critic, essayist, and pioneer sexologist, was born on February 2, 1859 in Croydon, Surrey. His father was a sea captain and rarely at home, so Ellis's mother was the dominant influence in his early life. She was an ardent evangelical Christian who had experienced a conversion at the age of 17, but Ellis early on slipped away from the more rigid aspects of her faith. He was provided with a basic education in private schools in south London, but his main education derived from wide reading. The crucial formative influence was his stay in Australia for four years from the age of 16.
En
Authors: Nakamaki Hirochika
Published: September 2017

En
is originally a Buddhist concept for indicating causal relations, but it is also a term that is used regularly in Japanese social life. It has also proved to be a very convenient term in academic analysis. In Buddhist terms,
en
is used as a common idiom to refer to an individual's destiny from a previous reincarnation.
En
, however, refers to an indirect causal relationship rather than a direct causal relationship. In Buddhist usage, the concept of
kechi‐en
refers to relations with a particular Bodhisattva (Enlightenment‐Being). In Esoteric Buddhism, the
kechi‐en kanjou
is a rite based on
kechi‐en
. Here, in a secret ritual, the disciple throws flowers onto the top of a Mandala, and establishes a relation or tie with the Bodhisattva hit by them.
En
days are specially designated days said to have a special connection with the Bodhisattvas. Kannon day is the 18th day of the month, Jizou is the 24th, and Fudou is the 28th. On these days, a visit to a temple is said to be a particularly pious act that brings substantial rewards.
Epidemiology
Authors: Sung Hung‐En
Published: September 2017

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution of disease as well as its determinants and consequences in human populations (Bhopal 2002). It uses statistical methods to answer questions on how much disease there is, what specific factors put individuals at risk, and how severe disease outcomes are in patient populations, in order to inform public health policymaking. The term disease encompasses not only physical or mental illnesses but also behavioral patterns with negative health consequences, such as substance abuse or violence.
Ethic of Care
Authors: Misra Joya
Published: September 2017

During the 1980s, a number of feminist scholars developed the concept of an ethic of care, which posited an approach to morality focused around caring. This approach drew upon many earlier currents of thought, which argued women's morality centers around nurturing/mothering, cooperation, and maintaining relationships. Sara Ruddick (1980, 1989) espoused an ethics focused around “maternal thinking” (attentive love and trust), which she argued could be used to transform private relations of love and caring into public discussions of peace. Nel Noddings (1984) similarly suggested that an ethic of caring could help create moral people, criticizing dominant ethical approaches as problematically placing “principles above persons.” These works valorize the assumed ethical values of “women,” and have been criticized for their essentialist tendencies.
Ethnic/Informal Economy
Authors: Sanders Jimy M.
Published: September 2017

Ethnic/informal economies are inconsistently defined by scholars. This slows progress in explicating the social underpinnings of ethnic/informal economies and in understanding how these economic systems affect the socioeconomic well‐being of members of various ethnic groups. Fortunately, there is a common theme to the definitions one finds in the literature. All variants convey a sense of economic action embedded in solidaristic, coethnic social relations. Economic behavior is influenced by informal rules and practices that govern the normative behavior of group members. Beyond this common theme, however, widely differing definitions involving self‐employment, employment niches among those who are not self‐employed, and geographical clustering have been applied.
Ethnonationalism
Authors: Connor Walker
Published: September 2017

Ethnonationalism (variant:
ethnic nationalism
) connotes identity with and loyalty to a nation in the sense of a human grouping predicated upon a myth of common ancestry. Seldom will the myth find support in scientific evidence. DNA analyses of the patrilineally bequeathed Y chromosome attest that nations tend to be neither genetically homogeneous nor hermetical, and analyses of the matrilineally bequeathed mitochrondrial DNA customarily attest to still greater heterogeneity and transnational genetic sharing. However, the popularly held conviction that one's nation is ethnically pure and distinct is intuitive rather than rational in its wellsprings and, as such, is capable of defying scientific and historic evidence to the contrary.
Eurocentrism
Authors: Alatas Syed Farid
Published: September 2017

The term “Eurocentrism” originated in the nineteenth century. Ethnocentrism refers to the belief that one's own ethnic group or society is superior to others'. Other groups are assessed and judged in terms of the categories and standards of evaluation of one's own group; European, and generally western concerns, culture, politics, and values are focused upon to the exclusion of others. Eurocentrism is a modern phenomenon and cannot be dissociated from the political, economic, and cultural domination of Europe and, later, United States. Europeans have tended to be seen as the sole originators of sociology, although recent scholarship is attempting to redress the balance and identify more diverse sources of social theory and sociology in general.
Everyday Life
Authors: Easton Martha
Published: September 2017

Everyday life, in the field of sociology, has been positioned as a condition, a social space, a political goal, and a methodological analytic. Its meaning has shifted with time, and its potential consequences have shifted with its meaning. One thing that has not changed has been the home of the concept, under the wing of the conflict school of theory. But while everyday life started its move into theory as a negative extension of Marx's idea of alienation, it has evolved into a celebrated realm for modern‐day feminist sociology.
Evolutionary sociology
Authors: Sanderson Stephen K.
Published: September 2017

Evolutionary sociology is the name given originally by Alexandra Maryanski to encompass two kinds of evolutionary perspectives in the field of sociology: the application of such Darwinian approaches as sociobiology and evolutionary psychology to understand the biological foundations of human society, and the description and explanation of long‐term social evolution.
Experts
Authors: Rhomberg Markus , Stehr Nico
Published: September 2017

Based on the assumption that we live in a knowledge society in which more and more people have access to higher education and the Internet, are literate and knowledgeable citizens, and in which decisions in everyday life, major social institutions as well as in government are increasingly based on expert advice, we outline the theoretical significance and practical importance of the growing stratum of experts, counselors and advisors, the role they play and the influence they exercise in modern societies (see also Stehr & Grundmann 2011). We suggest that this growth in knowledge‐based occupations has led to a pluralization of expertise. As decision makers in organizations and private citizens increasingly seek advice from experts, we inquire into the nature of expert activity, and suggest that the role of experts needs to be distinguished from other roles such as professionals, scientists, or intellectuals. Experts perform knowledge‐based activities that mediate between the context of knowledge creation and application. Existing approaches tend to restrict the role of the expert to scientists, to conflate the roles of professionals with experts, or to identify experts as a new ruling class. In what follows we sketch the distinctive roles and attributes of experts in knowledge societies.
Enclave Society
Authors: Turner Bryan S.
Published: September 2017

An enclave is simply an enclosed social space that is created by the erection of a barrier between an outside and an inside world. The construction of walls to keep out strangers is an obvious if simple example. In modern societies, while physical walls are regularly employed to protect a society from illegal migrations, drugs, or armed incursion, new technologies are increasingly employed to monitor such borders. An enclave society is one in which there is low trust, where there may be both internal and external barriers to create secure enclosures. In more sophisticated terms, “the creation of an enclave society involves a framework of political power in which governments and other agencies seek to regulate spaces and where necessary immobilize flows of people, goods and services” (Elliott and Turner, 2012: 56). The notion of an enclave society in contemporary sociology has been developed to offer a critique of globalization theory, with its emphasis on porous boundaries, mobility, and the erosion of nation‐state sovereignty (Turner, 2007, 2010).
Family and Community
Authors: Hilliard Betty
Published: September 2017

From the earliest days of sociology, family and community have been central concerns of the discipline. The dense interpenetration of these two dimensions of life was associated in particular with simple societies. This is especially evident in the work of early social thinkers such as the German Ferdinand Tönnies and the Frenchman Frederick Le Play.
Family Conflict
Authors: Kellerhals Jean
Published: September 2017

Although present since the nineteenth century, particularly in Marxist thinking (more specifically in Engels's work), interest in family conflict within the sociology of the family only really developed as a theme during the 1960s and 1970s.