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Presenting a ground-breaking revitalization of contemporary social theory, this book revisits the rise of the modern world to reopen the dialogue between anthropology and sociology. Using concepts developed by a series of 'maverick' anthropologists who were systematically marginalised as their ideas fell outside the standard academic canon, such as Arnold van Gennep, Marcel Mauss, Paul Radin, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl and Gregory Bateson, the authors argue that such concepts are necessary for understanding better the rise and dynamics of the modern world, including the development of the social sciences, in particular sociology and anthropology. Concepts discussed include liminality, imitation, schismogenesis and trickster, which provide an anthropological 'toolkit' for readers to develop innovative understandings of the underlying power mechanisms of globalized modernity. Aimed at graduate students and researchers, the book is clearly structured. Part I introduces the 'maverick' anthropologists, while Part II applies the maverick tool-kit to revisit the history of sociological thought and the question of modernity

The concepts of rationality that are used by social scientists in the formation of hypotheses, models and explanations are explored in this collection of original papers by a number of distinguished philosophers and social scientists. The aim of the book is to display the variety of the concepts used, to show the different roles they play in theories of very different kinds over a wide range of disciplines, including economics, sociology, psychology, political science and anthropology, and to assess the explanatory and predictive power that a theory can draw from such concepts.

That's my face: African American reflections on Brazil -- The way we were: Brazil in the African American roots tourist gaze -- Black gringos in Brazil?: encounters in sameness, difference, solidarity, and inequality -- We bring home the roots: African American women touring the diaspora and bearing the nation -- The awakening giant: the state's belated acknowledgment of roots tourism

The increasing integration of technology into our lives has created unprecedented volumes of data on society's everyday behaviour. Such data opens up exciting new opportunities to work towards a quantitative understanding of our complex social systems, within the realms of a new discipline known as Computational Social Science. Against a background of financial crises, riots and international epidemics, the urgent need for a greater comprehension of the complexity of our interconnected global society and an ability to apply such insights in policy decisions is clear. This manifesto outlines the objectives of this new scientific direction, considering the challenges involved in it, and the extensive impact on science, technology and society that the success of this endeavour is likely to bring about. ; The publication of this work was partially supported by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement No. 284709, a Coordination and Support Action in the Information and Communication Technologies activity area ('FuturICT' FET Flagship Pilot Project). We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for the insightful comments. ; Publicado

Explores various contemporary sociological theories of culture that have collapsed the distinction between the realm of the idea/spiritual & material into a more expansive notion of culture. It is shown that traditions stretching back to the sociological models of Max Weber & Karl Marx, & forward through the critical theory of the Frankfurt school & British cultural studies, have broken disciplinary boundaries in their quest to map the relationships among the social, culture, economics, & politics in the constitution of contemporary societies. Although these traditions have established connections to one another, it is suggested that a recent bifurcation of the field into textual & empirical analyses threatens to transform the field into warring paradigms & competing models. Celebrations of the popular & a fetishization of the audience, both of which became more pronounced in the 1980s, are particularly identified as dangerously one-sided approaches to the study of culture. It is argued that a sociological study of culture must return to an investigation of the relationships among three dimensions of culture: the political economy of culture; the textual analysis of artifacts; & the study of audience reception. 54 References. D. M. Smith