Society and Culture: Scarcity and Solidarity (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society) - Softcover

Bryan Turner; Chris Rojek

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0761970495 ISBN 13: 9780761970491

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2001

Synopsis

Society and Culture reclaims the classical heritage, provides a clear-eyed assessment of the promise of sociology in the 21st century and asks whether the `cultural turn' has made the study of society redundant.

Sociologists have objected to the rise of cultural studies on the grounds that it produces cultural relativism and lacks a stable research agenda. This book looks at these criticisms and illustrates the relevance of a sociological perspective in the analysis of human practice. The book argues that the classical tradition must be treated as a living tradition, rather than a period piece. It analyzes the fundamental principles of belonging and conflict in society and provides a detailed critical survey of the principal social theories that offer solutions to the challenges of modernism.

About this title

Review:

`Focusing on the ineradicable vulnerability of embodied and mortal human beings as the main spring of institution-building, and on the condition of scarcity as the postulate of solidarity and the main parameters of human responses to that condition, Turner and Rojek draw a new horizon for sociological inquiry, calling for a radical re-orientation of sociological strategy; by the same token they posit a challenge which no member of the sociological profession may leave unattended - Zygmunt Bauman

`An important and timely contribution. Society and Culture engages crucial debates that are reshaping the core identity and future agenda of sociology. Turner and Rojek start with an insightful reconsideration of Parsons' theory of action, identify the strengths and limits of contemporary projects like those of Giddens and Beck, and offer a valuable new direction for future development' - Craig Calhoun, New York University

About the Author:

Bryan S. Turner is Professor of Sociology in the Asian Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore. Previously he was Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge from 1998-2005. His research interests include globalization and religion, concentrating on such issues as religious conflict and the modern state, religious authority and electronic information, religious, consumerism and youth cultures, human rights and religion, the human body, medical change, and religious cosmologies. He is Joint Chief Editor of the journal Citizenship Studies and serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals.

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0761970495
• ISBN 13: 9780761970491
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272