Sociology

This provocative new introduction to the field of digital sociology offers a critical overview of interdisciplinary debates about new ways of knowing society that are emerging today at the interface of computing, media, social research and social life. Digital Sociology introduces key concepts, methods and understandings that currently inform the development of specifically digital forms of social enquiry. Marres assesses the relevance and usefulness of digital methods, data and techniques for the study of sociological phenomena and evaluates the major claim that computation makes possible a new 'science of society'. As Marres argues, the digital does much more than inspire innovation in social research: it forces us to engage anew with fundamental sociological questions. We must learn to appreciate that the digital has the capacity to throw into crisis existing knowledge frameworks and is likely to reconfigure wider relations. This timely engagement with a key transformation of our age will be indispensable reading for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in digital sociology, digital media, computing and society.

There is a widespread perception that life is faster than it used to be. We hear constant laments that we live too fast, that time is scarce, and that the pace of everyday life is spiraling out of our control. The iconic image that abounds is that of the frenetic, technologically tethered,iPhone/iPad-addicted citizen. Yet weren't modern machines supposed to save, and thereby free up, time?The purpose of this book is to bring a much-needed sociological perspective to bear on speed: it examines how speed and acceleration came to signify the zeitgeist, and explores the political implications of this. Among the major questions addressed are: when did acceleration become the primaryrationale for technological innovation and the key measure of social progress? Is acceleration occurring across all sectors of society and all aspects of life, or are some groups able to mobilise speed as a resource while others are marginalised and excluded? Does the growing centrality oftechnological mediations (of both information and communication) produce slower as well as faster times, waiting as well as "busyness", stasis as well as mobility? To what extent is the contemporary imperative of speed as much a cultural artefact as a material one? To make sense of everyday life inthe twenty-first century, we must begin by interrogating the social dynamics of speed.This book shows how time is a collective accomplishment, and that temporality is experienced very differently by diverse groups of people, especially between the affluent and those who service them.

The authors of this book discuss the latest advances in sociology research. Chapter One focuses on understanding the current situation and factors affecting life quality of workers at Export Processing Zone/Industrial Parks (EPZ/IPs) in HCMC. Chapter Two reviews the international legal standards on the protection of child victims of crime and consider how these standards are implemented in Vietnam. Chapter Three utilizes county level white and African-American arrest and incarceration data from Iowa and Missouri to explore the effects of racial threat and political orientation on the likelihood of arrest and imprisonment. Chapter Four focuses on one seldom-discussed area of historical and contemporary eugenic control, the development of financial or social incentives or disincentives to foster eugenic aims, and discusses its social justice implications. Chapter Five explores the context and the challenges of the urban refugees and asylum seekers that live in the main urban centres of Thailand, coming from more than 40 countries of Asia and Africa looking for a safer life. Chapter Six examines refugees' apprehensions which result in their negligence of given solutions, using Ghana as a case study. Chapter Seven reviews controversies and limits of a current debate on the centrality of work category in social theory and contemporary capitalism. Chapter Eight is about Pastor Nevers Mumba of Zambia, who is arguably an unsung hero of a Pentecostal politician with a quasi political theology that gives him the drive and the scope for his involvement in active and partisan politics.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the range of themes which make up the field of Historical Sociology. Jiří Subrt systematically discusses the main problems of societal development, long term process and changes in the key areas of social life. These include not only temporalized sociology, evolutionary theory, civilizational analysis, societal systems, structures and functions, but also modernization and revolution, risk, crisis, catastrophe and collapse, wars, conflicts and violence, nations, nationalism and collective memory. This study does not ignore the fundamental dichotomy underlying the discipline, which is between individualism and holism.  At the heart of this book lies the human individual as related to social and historical development. The key question is who or what is responsible for the process of human history: society or the individual? The author concludes by offering an approach which may help in resolving this dilemma.

A wide and scientific overview on migration potential from the NEMA region to the EU.