Product Description: Research data are everywhere. In our everyday interactions, through social media, credit cards and even public transport, we generate and use data. The challenge for sociologists is how to collect, analyse and make best use of these vast arrays of information...read more

Product Description: Sociology is an established academic discipline but there has been continuing debate over its status as a science and the nature of its subject matter. This led to the emergence of a phenomenological sociology and to critiques of positivist sociology...read more

Product Description: Professor Rex’s controversial book concerns not only those who are professional sociologists but all thinking people who live in the modern world. One of the objects of sociology is to give ‘power to the people’, to make a contribution to the understanding of political problems...read more

In the social sciences today, students are taught theory by reading and analyzing the works of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and other foundational figures of the discipline. What they rarely learn, however, is how to actually theorize. The Art of Social Theory is a practical guide to doing just that.In this one-of-a-kind user's manual for social theorists, Richard Swedberg explains how theorizing occurs in what he calls the context of discovery, a process in which the researcher gathers preliminary data and thinks creatively about it using tools such as metaphor, analogy, and typology. He guides readers through each step of the theorist's art, from observation and naming to concept formation and explanation. To theorize well, you also need a sound knowledge of existing social theory. Swedberg introduces readers to the most important theories and concepts, and discusses how to go about mastering them. If you can think, you can also learn to theorize. This book shows you how.Concise and accessible, The Art of Social Theory features helpful examples throughout, and also provides practical exercises that enable readers to learn through doing.

Product Description: Bourdieu’s theory of social fields is one of his key contributions to social sciences and humanities. However, it has never been subjected to genuine critical examination. This book fills that gap and offers a clear and wide-ranging introduction to the theory...read more

Product Description: This collection brings together for the first time a set of researchers whose research methodologies centre on Bourdieu's concept of habitus. Full of insight and innovation, the book is an essential read for anyone wanting to know more about approaches to social theory and its application in research...read more

Product Description: This edited collection explores issues that arise when researching "hard-to-reach" groups and those who remain socially excluded and marginalized in society, such as access, the use of gatekeepers, ethical dilemmas, "voice," and how such research contributes to issues of inclusion and social justice...read more

Product Description: George Herbert Mead is a foundational figure in sociology, best known for his book Mind, Self, and Society, which was put together after his death from course notes taken by stenographers and students and from unpublished manuscripts...read more

Product Description: Tumble down the rabbit hole and find yourself in an inky black-and-white wonderland.Following on from the success of the best-selling coloring book Secret Garden by Johanna Basford.This set of three mini journals has beautifully decorated covers and is packaged as a gift set...read more

Product Description: At a time when an emphasis on productivity in higher education threatens to undermine well-crafted research, these highly reflexive essays capture the sometimes profound intellectual effects that may accompany disrupted scholarship...read more

Product Description: In 2004, Michael Burawoy challenged sociologists to move beyond the ivory tower and into the realm of activism, to engage in public discourses about what society could or should be. His call to arms sparked intense debate among sociologists...read more

Product Description: As the founder of the humanist version of sociology, Georg Simmel sent powerful messages about the discipline. His key ideas—that reality is socially constructed, changes over time, and rarely is as it appears—are critically re-examined with an eye toward drawing lessons for contemporary scholars and activists...read more

Product Description: A study of live methods including experimentation, attentiveness, collaboration, multi-media platforms, public sociology, the game of social life and research, idiotic methods, scavenging, mapping and topologies * Global in scope and inter-woven by theoretical and methodological considerations * Chapters emerge from the Methods Lab at Goldsmiths University which is committed to developing inventive ways of 'doing sociology' * Studies the practice of sociological imagination and the aim is to make social research responsive to social life - to bring it aliv...read more

Contested Knowledge has established itself as a leading text that brings social theory into the present day by providing the most up to date perspectives on social theory by one of the most important thinkers of our time, Steven Seidman. Responds to current issues, debates, and new social movements. Reviews sociological theory from a truly contemporary perspective. Covers both classical and contemporary theories. Combines social analysis and moral advocacy, and demonstrates how social theory can contribute to the making of a better world. Challenges social scientists to renew their commitment to viewing social knowledge as playing an important moral and political role in public life. Revised new edition organizes contents more appealingly for students, and includes an insightful new chapter on social theory today and short biographies on major social thinkers.

This is the second and comprehensively revised and greatly expanded edition of the best selling book on methods and methodology written by members or associates of the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London. All of the acknowledged strengths of the first edition have been retained and improved. There are completely new chapters covering audio recordings, the Internet, visual materials, focus groups, grounded theory, combining qualitative and quantitative methods, using data archives for statistical analysis, doing a dissertation, ethics, doing a literature review and more. A brand new section 3 provides case studies.In addition, this volume comes with:- Comprehensive bullet points and text boxes to facilitate study- A glossary of key terms- Web pointers in most chapter, to indicate relevant internet resources- A guide to further reading- A list of Key Terms at the end of each chapter- An associated web site with regularly updated live links to pointers, workshop and discussion exercises at www.rscbook.co.uk