Work, Consumerism and the New Poor

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Zygmunt Bauman
Open University Press, 1998 - 106pages

"It will be of great interest and value to students, teachers and researchers in sociology and social policy; but it would be good if it were to be read by politicians, journalists and the person in the street too.... It is not possible to convey all the richness and subtlety of Bauman's argument in a short review... [It] provides a very forceful and sophisticated statement of the case; and a very well written one too... As a wide ranging analysis of our present discontents it is an admirable example of the sort of challenge which sociology at its best can offer to us and our fellow citizens to re-assess and re-think our current social arrangements."

Work, Employment and Society

"This is a stylish and persuasive analysis of the transition between the age of the 'society of producers' to that of the 'society of consumers'."
Political Studies

"Zygmunt Bauman presents a cogently argued and compelling thesis describing how the way poverty and the poor are being viewed in Western Society has changed during the course of modern history... this is an important book from a distinguished scholar, that adds a new dimension to the poverty debate."

British Journal of Sociology

    * Can poverty be fought and conquered by orthodox means?
    * Should we seek new solutions like "decoupling" the right to livelihood from the selling of labour and extending the socially recognised concept of work?
    * How urgent is it to confront these social questions and find practical answers?

It is one thing to be poor in a society of producers and universal employment; it is quite a different thing to be poor in a society of consumers, in which life projects are built around the consumer choice rather than work, professional skills or jobs. If "being poor" once derived its meaning from the condition of being unemployed, today it draws its meaning primarily from the plight of a flawed consumer. This is one difference which truly makes a difference - in the way living in poverty is experienced and in the chances and prospects to redeem its misery.

This absorbing book attempts to trace this change, which has been taking place over the duration of modern history, and to make an inventory of its social consequences. On the way, it tries also to consider to what extent the well remembered and tested means of fighting back advancing poverty and mitigating its hardships are fit (or unfit) to grasp and tackle the problems of poverty in its present form. Students of sociology, politics and social policy will find this to be an invaluable text on the changing significance and implications of an enduring social problem.

The Social Science Encyclopedia

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Adam Kuper, Jessica Kuper
Taylor & Francis, 2003 - 923pages

This new edition of an already classic reference work provides students, librarians, social scientists, and professionals with an invaluable compendium of the entire range of the social sciences. The 500+ entries on all of the major issues and concepts in the social sciences encompass the areas of anthropology, business, economics, education, government and politics, law and criminology, linguistics, psychology, social work, sociology, women's studies and beyond. For anyone concerned with these fields, "The Social Science Encyclopedia" is a truly essential resource.

Social Theory after Holocaust

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Robert Fine, Charles Turner
Liverpool University Press, 2000 - 266pages

This collection of essays explores the character and quality of the Holocaust 2s impact and the abiding legacy it has left for social theory. The premise which informs the contributions is that, ten years after its publication, Zygmunt Bauman 2s claim that social theory has either failed to address the Holocaust or protected itself from its implications remains true.

Space of Capital: Toward a Critical Geography

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David Harvey
Routledge, 2001 - 429pages

David Harvey is the most influential geographer of our era, possessing a reputation that extends across the social sciences and humanities. "Spaces of Capital," a collection of seminal articles and new essays spanning three decades, demonstrates why his work has had-and continues to have-such a major impact.

The book gathers together some of Harvey's best work on two of his central concerns: the relationship between geographical thought and political power as well as the capitalist production of space. In addition, he chips away at geography's pretenses of "scientific" neutrality and grounds spatial theory in social justice. Harvey also reflects on the work and careers of little-noticed or misrepresented figures in geography's intellectual history-Kant, Von Thunen, Humboldt, Lattimore, Hegel, Heidegger, Darwin, Malthus, Foucault and many others. Via this exploration of geography's intellectual lineage, he underscores its significance for all varieties of social thought. And, in two new chapters, Harvey considers contemporary cartographic identities and social movements.

Harvey's insights into current social, environmental, and political trends, in combination with his historical observations, demonstrate the centrality of geography to comprehending the world as it is-and as it might be.

The Black Companion of Social Theory

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Bryan S. Turner
Wiley-Blackwell, 2000 - 570pages

"The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory, "Second Edition, builds on the success of the highly regarded first edition by adding four completely new chapters on the foundations of social theory, anthropology, phenomenology, and sociology of the body. Retained material from the first edition has been revised, extended, and updated, and coverage of feminism expanded into two chapters on second-wave feminism and contemporary feminist theory.

The book guides the student and scholar through the vast array of approaches and frameworks that shape contemporary analysis of social reality. The principal focus is on post-classical modern social theory, but while major post-classical thinkers such as Habermas, Foucault and Derrida are examined, they appear within the context of a classical tradition developed by figures such as Parsons, Goffman and Elias. Organized by themes rather than theorists, 18 essays by the world's leading social theorists provide insights to the traditions of classical social thought as well as the major debates and developments in contemporary social theory. Extensive bibliographies, meanwhile, provide a guide to the current literature.

The Culture of New Capitalism

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Richard Sennett
Yale University Press, 2007 - 214pages

In this provocative book Richard Sennett looks at the ways today's global, ever-mutable form of capitalism is affecting our lives. He analyzes how changes in work ethic, in our attitudes toward merit and talent, and in public and private institutions have all contributed to what he terms "the specter of uselessness," and he concludes with suggestions to counter this disturbing new culture. "Hardly any social thinkers have given serious thought to the drastic changes in corporate culture wrought by downsizing, 're-orging,' and outsourcing. Fortunately, the exceptionRichard Sennettis also one of the most insightful public intellectuals we have. InThe Culture of the New CapitalismSennett addresses the new corporate culture with his usual vast erudition, endlessly supple intellect, and firm moral outlook. The result is brilliant, disturbing, and absolutely necessary reading."Barbara Ehrenreich, author ofBait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream "[Sennett] has brilliantly pushed his thinking. . . . [A] triumph."Will Hutton,The Observer "Reflective, studded with sharp insights, moving with grace between big ideas and specific cases. This is vintage Sennett."Douglas W. Rae, author ofCity: Urbanism and Its End "Packed with thought. . . . Profound and challenging. . . . [I am] full of admiration for the subtlety and originality of Richard Sennett's work."Madeleine Bunting,New Statesman

The Future of Social Theory

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Nicholas Gane
Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004 - 210pages

The basic concept of society has come under attack--political acts, critical theory, new media and even history itself have undermined what we think of as the social. The Future of Social Theory brings together new interviews with the world's leading social theorists on what society means today: Zygmunt Bauman, John Urry, Saska Sassen, Bruno Latour, Scott Lash, Nikolas Rose, Judith Butler and Francoise Verges. The topics covered include: liquid modernization and the individualization of society; the shift towards global forms of chaos and complexity; the displacement of the social into global city networks; the shift away from a theory of the social to a theory of space; the transformation of society with the rise of new technology; the continuing influence of historical forms of political power; society as a gendered idea; and society as a product of Empire.

Encyclopedia of Social Theory Volume 1

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George Ritzer
SAGE, 2005 - 982pages

This set comes just months after the publication of Sage's three-volume Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods, whose best attributes are repeated here: an alphabetical list of entries and Reader's Guide (including topical breakdowns) appear at the front of both volumes; a "Chronology of Social Theory," "Master Bibliography," and comprehensive index are at the end of Volume 2. Some of the deficiencies of Research Methods are here as well, including minimal graphics and a decidedly Western orientation to key players and concepts. The set is quite current, with up-to-date entries such as "Male Gaze" and "McDonaldization," although the controversial French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who died several months ago, is alive and well in these pages. Bottom Line On the whole, this will be a useful resource for beginning researchers in the social sciences, or users requiring basic definitions or biographies. Recommended for large public and academic libraries.-Ellen D. Gilbert, Princeton, NJ

Profiles in Contemporary Social Theory

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Anthony Elliott, Bryan S. Turner
SAGE, 2001 - 400pages

This comprehensive book provides an indispensable introduction to the most significant figures in contemporary social theory. Grounded strongly in the European tradition, the profiles include Michel Foucault, J[um]urgen Habermas, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Pierre Bourdieu, Zygmunt Bauman, Martin Heidegger, Frederic Jameson, Richard Rorty, Nancy Chodorow, Anthony Giddens, Stuart Hall, Luce Irigaray and Donna Haraway. In guiding students through the key figures in an accessible and authoritative fashion, the book provides detailed accounts of the development of the work of major social theorists and charts the relationship between different traditions of social, cultural and political thought.

Encyclopedia of Social Theory Volume 2

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George Ritzer
SAGE, 2005 - 982pages

Editorial Review

This set comes just months after the publication of Sage's three-volume Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods, whose best attributes are repeated here: an alphabetical list of entries and Reader's Guide (including topical breakdowns) appear at the front of both volumes; a "Chronology of Social Theory," "Master Bibliography," and comprehensive index are at the end of Volume 2. Some of the deficiencies of Research Methods are here as well, including minimal graphics and a decidedly Western orientation to key players and concepts. The set is quite current, with up-to-date entries such as "Male Gaze" and "McDonaldization," although the controversial French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who died several months ago, is alive and well in these pages. Bottom Line On the whole, this will be a useful resource for beginning researchers in the social sciences, or users requiring basic definitions or biographies. Recommended for large public and academic libraries.-Ellen D. Gilbert, Princeton, NJ

Globalization, Wages and the Quality of Jobs: Five Country Studies

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World Bank
World Bank Publications, 2009 - 282pages

Since the early 1990s, most developing economies have become more integrated with the world's economy. Trade and foreign investment barriers have been progressively lifted and international trade agreements signed. These reforms have led to important changes in the structures of these economies. The labor markets have adjusted to these major changes, and workers were required to adapt to them in one way or another.In 2006, the Social Protection Unit of the World Bank launched an important research program to understand the impact that these profound structural changes have had on workers in developing countries. 'Globalization, Wages, and the Quality of Jobs: Five Country Studies' presents the findings and insights of this important research program. In particular, the authors present the similar experiences of low-income countries with globalization and suggest that low-income countries' working conditions have improved in the sectors exposed to globalization. However, 'Globalization, Wages, and the Quality of Jobs' also highlights concerns about the sustainability of these improvements and that the positive demonstration effects on the rest of the economy are unclear.The empirical literature that exists, although vast, does not lead to a consensus view on globalization's eventual impact on labor markets. Understanding the effects of globalization is crucial for governments concerned about employment, working conditions, and ultimately, poverty reduction. Beyond job creation, improving the quality of those jobs is an essential condition for achieving poverty reduction. 'Globalization, Wages, and the Quality of Jobs' adds to the existing literature in two ways. First, the authors provide a comprehensive literature review on the current wisdom on globalization and present a micro-based framework for analyzing globalization and working conditions in developing countries. Second, the authors apply this framework to five developing countries: Cambodia, El Salvador, Honduras, Indonesia, and Madagascar. This volume will be of interest to government policy makers, trade officials, and others working to expand the benefits of globalization to developing countries.

Financial Globalization and Democracy in Emerging Market

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Leslie Elliott Armijo
Palgrave, 2001 - 370pages

When Mexico's peso crisis occurred in December 1994, all of Latin America experienced the "tequila effect." In January 1998, after seven months of financial turmoil in East Asia, Alan Greenspan, the normally reticent Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank, noted that such "vicious cycles...may, in fact, be a defining characteristic of the new high-tech international financial system." Financial Globalization and Democracy in Emerging Markets examines the impact of the new, highly liquid, portfolio capital flows on governments, opposition politicians, business, and labor in such emerging market countries as Mexico, Brazil, Russia, India, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Islamic Finance in the Global Economy

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Ibrahim Warde
Edinburgh University Press, 2008 - 272pages

"A well-researched and concise book on a fluid, complex, and sometimes misjudged concept."& - MESA BulletinIslamic finance has grown at an annual rate that exceeds twenty percent a year and is now a two hundred billion dollar industry operating in more than seventy countries. A best-selling text that introduces the role of Islamic finance in the global economy, this book unravels the paradox of a thriving system rooted in medieval practice. It defines Islamic finance in its broadest sense, including banks, mutual funds, securities firms, and insurance companies. Ibrahim Warde situates Islamic finance within global political and economic systems and addresses core issues, such as the moral economy of Islam, differences between Pakistan, Iran, the Sudan, and Malaysia, and religious issues and challenges. This revised edition accounts for recent changes and developments. It thoroughly traces the evolution of Islamic finance, explores its significance from historical and comparative perspectives, and considers strategic, marketing, managerial, political, economic, regulatory, and cultural challenges currently facing Islamic institutions.

Islamic Finance: Law, Economics, and Practice

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Mahmoud A. El-Gamal
Cambridge University Press, 2006 - 221pages

This book provides an overview of the practice of Islamic finance and the historical roots that define its modes of operation. The focus of the book is analytical and forward-looking. It shows that Islamic finance exists mainly as a form of rent-seeking legal-arbitrage. In every aspect of finance -- from personal loans to investment banking, and from market structure to corporate governance -- Islamic finance aims to replicate in Islamic forms the substantive functions of contemporary financial instruments, markets, and institutions. By attempting to replicate the substance of contemporary financial practice using pre-modern contract forms, Islamic finance has arguably failed to serve the objectives of Islamic law. This book proposes refocusing Islamic finance on substance rather than form. This approach would entail abandoning the paradigm of "Islamization" of every financial practice. It would also entail reorienting the brand-name of Islamic finance to emphasize issues of community banking, micro-finance, and socially responsible investment.

Medieval Islamic Economic Thought: Filling the "Great Gap" in European Economics

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Shaikh M. Ghazanfar
Routledge, 2003 - 284pages

This book is a collection of papers on the origins of economic thought discovered in the writings of some prominent Islamic scholars, roughly during the five centuries prior to the Latin Scholastics, like St. Thomas Aquinas

New Dialectics and Political Economy

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Robert Albritton, John Simoulidis
Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 - 218pages

Many of the leading thinkers on dialectics in the Marxian tradition have collaborated here to put forward and debate challenging new perspectives on the nature and importance of dialectics. The issues dealt with range from the philosophical consideration of the precise nature of dialectical reasoning, to dialectics and economic theory, and to more concrete concerns such as how dialectics can help us think about globalization, freedom, inflation, and subjectivity.

Second Nature: Economic Origin and Human Nature

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Haim Ofek
Cambridge University Press, 2001 - 254pages

This book spans two million years of human evolution and explores the impact of economics on human evolution and natural history. The theory of evolution by natural selection has always relied in part on progress in areas of science outside of biology. By applying economic principles at the borderlines of biology, Haim Ofek shows how some of the outstanding issues in human evolution, such as the increase in human brain size and the expansion of the environmental niche humans occupied, can be answered. He identifies distinct economic forces at work, beginning with the transition from the feed-as-you-go strategy of primates, through hunter-gathering and the domestication of fire to the development of agriculture. This highly readable book will inform and intrigue general readers and those in fields such as evolutionary biology and psychology, economics, and anthropology.

Small Loans Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World

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Alex Counts
John Wiley and Sons, 2008 - 410pages

Microfinancing is considered one of the most effective strategies in the fight against global poverty. And now, in Small Loans, Big Changes,  author Alex Counts reveals how Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus revolutionized global antipoverty efforts through the development of this approach. This book presents compelling stories of women benefiting from Yunus’s microcredit in rural Bangladesh and urban Chicago, and recounts the experiences of different borrowers in each country, interspersing them with stories of Yunus, his colleagues, and their counterparts in Chicago.

A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics

 
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Hans Küng
Oxford University Press, 1998 - 315pages

As the twentieth century draws to a close and the rush to globalization gathers momentum, political and economic considerations are crowding out vital ethical questions about the shape of our future. Now, Hans Kung, one of the world's preeminent Christian theologians, explores these issues in a visionary and cautionary look at the coming global society. How can the new world order of the twenty first century avoid the horrors of the twentieth? Will nations form a real community or continue to aggressively pursue their own interests? Will the Machiavellian approaches of the past prevail over idealism and a more humanitarian politics? What role can religion play in a world increasingly dominated by transnational corporations? Kung tackles these and many other questions with the insight and moral authority that comes from a lifetime's devotion to the search for justice and human dignity. Arguing against both an amoral realpolitik and an immoral resurgence of laissez faire economics, Kung defines a comprehensive ethic founded on the bedrock of mutual respect and humane treatment of all beings that would encompass the ecological, legal, technological, and social patterns that are reshaping civilization. If we are going to have a global economy, a global technology, a global media, Kung argues, we must also have a global ethic to which all nations, and peoples of the most varied backgrounds and beliefs, can commit themselves. "The world," he says, "is not going to be held together by the Internet." For anyone concerned about the world we are creating, A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics offers equal measures of informed analysis, compassionate foresight, and wise counsel.

Islamic Economics: A Short History

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Ahmed Abdel-Fattah El-Ashker, Rodney Wilson
Brill, 2006 - 450pages

This comprehensive survey of Islamic economic thought covers the development of ideas from the early Muslim jurists to the period of the Umayyads and Abbasids. The economic concerns of the Ottomans, Safawids and Moghuls are examined, as is the profusion of more recent writing.