Bücher der Reihe Classical and Contemporary Social Theory

This book explores the thought of - and is dedicated to - David Frisby, one of the leading sociologists of the late twentieth and early twenty-¿rst centuries. Presenting original examinations of his unique social theory and underlining his interdisciplinary approach to the critical interpretation of modern metropolitan society and culture, it emphasises Frisby's legacy in highlighting the role of the social researcher as a collector, reader, observer, detective and archivist of the phenomena and ideas that exemplify the modern metropolis as society. With contributions from sociologists, cultural theorists, historians of the city, urban geographers and designers, and architectural historians and theorists, The Detective of Modernity constitutes a wide-ranging engagement with Frisby's profound legacy in social and cultural theory.

Bringing together the work of scholars from across Europe, this book shows how Simmel's categories can be used to explore contemporary issues and further shed light on trends characteristic of global modernity.

The Poetics of Crime is an invitation to reconsider and reimagine how criminological knowledge may be creatively and poetically constructed, obtained, corroborated and applied. Departing from the conventional understanding of criminology as a discipline concerned with refined statistical analyses, survey methods and quantitative measurements.

This book examines the 2008 global economic crisis as a complex social phenomenon or "social hieroglyphic", arguing that the crisis is not fundamentally economic, but instead a symptom of a long-standing, multifaceted, and endemic crisis of capitalism which has effectively become permanent.

This collection invites inquiry into the complexities of the social life of walls, observing urban spaces as veritable laboratories of wall-making - places where their consequences become most visible.

This book explores the place of art in the modern world. Engaging with a broad range of theory, the author draws on the thought of Max Weber to offer an account of art¿s widespread appeal in terms of its constituting a self-contained value-sphere of meaning, which provides a feeling of salvation from the senseless routines of modern life.

Shedding light on the relationship between violence and contemporary society, this volume explores the distinctive but little-known theories of violence in the work of Georges Bataille and Jean Baudrillard.

Challenging the mainstream orthodoxy of social scientific methodology, which closely guards the boundaries between the social sciences and the arts and humanities, this volume reveals that authors and artists are often engaged in projects parallel to those of the social sciences and vice versa.

Bringing social theory and philosophy to bear on popular movies, novels, myths, and fairy tales, The Gift and its Paradoxes explores the ambiguity of the gift: it is at once both a relation and a thing, alienable and inalienable, present and poison. Challenging the nature of giving as reciprocal.

Exploring his unique and interdisciplinary approach to the critical interpretation of modern metropolitan society and culture, this book emphasises David Frisby's legacy in highlighting the role of the social researcher as a collector, reader, observer, detective and archivist of the phenomena and ideas that exemplify the modern metropolis.

This book is the first full study of Edward Westermarck¿s moral and social theory, focusing on the key elements of his theory of moral emotions as presented in The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas and summarized in Ethical Relativity.

This volume explores the emotions that are intricately woven into the texture of everyday life and experience. It focuses on the role of emotions as being integral to daily life, broadening our understanding by examining both `core¿ emotions and those that are often overlooked or omitted from more conventional studies.

This volume examines the question of how the incessant demand for improved performance and efficiency, the pursuit of self-improvement and everyday multitasking affect not only relationships with others, but also with body and self.

Provides an analysis of the abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib in terms of social theory, gender and power, based on first-hand participant-observations of the courts-martials of Lynndie England and Sabrina Harman. This book examines the trials themselves, including interactions with soldiers and defense teams.

Examining the mimetic theory of Rene Girard, this book investigates the development of society as a result of an original crime (a murder) that shaped the way the earliest humans organized the social structures we live with today - an analysis that reveals the dangerous structure of the most basic social relationships.