Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction -- The philosophy behind the book -- What are culture and identity? -- The importance and origins of culture and identity -- Using the skills of sociology -- Exam focus -- Study guidance -- Using concept maps -- The content of the book -- 2 Key Issues in the Study of Culture and Identity -- Introduction -- What is culture? -- What is identity? -- Attempts to define culture -- Non-sociological uses of the concept of culture -- Socialization, norms and values -- Evaluating the concept of culture: three problems -- Understanding the concept of identity: do not lose sight of the individual -- Conclusion -- 3 Classical Views on Culture and Identity -- Introduction -- Introducing two classical views on culture -- View one: culture as order - functionalism -- View two: culture as ideological control - Marxism -- Conclusion -- 4 The Development of 'Action' Sociology and Interactionists -- Introduction -- The role of meanings and motives in society -- Georg Simmel -- Contemporary forms of action sociology -- Conclusion -- 5 Socialization, Self-Identity and the Life Course -- Introduction -- Socialization -- Self-identity and the map of one's life -- The life course -- Age and ageing -- Returning to the relationship between the individual and society -- Conclusion -- 6 How Much Agency Do Individuals Have in Culture? -- Introduction -- Thinking using culture: the creative self -- Clarifying what is meant by 'agency' -- Reflexivity -- Conclusion -- 7 Modern and Postmodern Culture and Identity -- Introduction -- What is modernity? -- What is postmodernity? -- Postmodern identities -- Evaluation of postmodernism -- Theories of risk -- Conclusion -- 8 Mass Culture and Popular Culture -- Introduction -- Basic definitions -- The 'mass society thesis'.

This outstanding collection of fifteen original essays represents innovative work by some of the most influential scholars in the field of women's history. Covering a broad sweep of history from the American Revolution to contemporary times and ranging over the fields of legal, social, political, and cultural history, this book, according to its editors, "intrudes into regions of the American historical narrative from which women have been excluded or in which gender relations were not thought to play a part