sociology

In-your-face politics: The consequences of uncivil media

In-your-face politics: The consequences of uncivil media / Diana C. Mutz
Princeton, US: Princeton Univ. Press, 2015. 263 p.

 

Americans are disgusted with watching politicians screaming and yelling at one another on television. But does all the noise really make a difference? Drawing on numerous studies, Diana Mutz provides the first comprehensive look at the consequences of in-your-face politics. Her book contradicts the conventional wisdom by documenting both the benefits and the drawbacks of in-your-face media. "In-your-face" politics refers to both the level of incivility and the up-close and personal way that we experience political conflict on television. Just as actual physical closeness intensifies people's emotional reactions to others, the appearance of closeness on a video screen has similar effects. We tend to keep our distance from those with whom we disagree. Modern media, however, puts those we dislike in our faces in a way that intensifies our negative reactions. Mutz finds that incivility is particularly detrimental to facilitating respect for oppositional political viewpoints and to citizens' levels of trust in politicians and the political process. On the positive side, incivility and close-up camera perspectives contribute to making politics more physiologically arousing and entertaining to viewers. This encourages more attention to political programs, stimulates recall of the content, and encourages people to relay content to others

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sociology

The XX factor

The economic socialisation of young peopleThe XX factor: How the rise of working women has creadted a far less equal world / Alison Wolf
New York: Crown Publ., 2013. 393 p.


Noted British academic and journalist Alison Wolf offers a surprising and thoughtful study of the professional elite, and examines the causes—and limits—of women’s rise and the consequences of their difficult choices.
The gender gap is closing. Today, for the first time in history, tens of millions of women are spending more time at the boardroom table than the kitchen table. These professional women are highly ambitious and highly educated, enjoying the same lifestyle prerogatives as their male counterparts. They are working longer and marrying later—if they marry at all. They are heading Fortune 500 companies and appearing on the covers of Forbes and Businessweek. They represent a special type of working woman—the kind who doesn’t just punch a clock for a paycheck, but derives self-worth and pleasure from wielding professional power.
At the same time that the gender gap is narrowing, the gulf is widening among women themselves. While blockbuster books such as Lean In focus only on women in high pressure jobs, in reality there are four women in traditionally female roles for every Sheryl Sandberg. In this revealing and deeply intelligent book, Alison Wolf examines why more educated women work longer hours, why having children early is a good idea, and how feminism created a less equal world. Her ideas are sure to provoke and surprise, as she challenges much of what the liberal and conservative media consider to be women’s best interests.

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sociology

A social history of twentieth-century Europe

The economic socialisation of young peopleA social history of twentieth-century Europe / Béla  Tomka
London: Routledge, 2013. 526 p.


A Social History of Twentieth-Century Europe offers a systematic overview on major aspects of social life, including population, family and households, social inequalities and mobility, the welfare state, work, consumption and leisure, social cleavages in politics, urbanization as well as education, religion and culture. It also addresses major debates and diverging interpretations of historical and social research regarding the history of European societies in the past one hundred years.

Organized in ten thematic chapters, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach, making use of the methods and results of not only history, but also sociology, demography, economics and political science. Béla Tomka presents both the diversity and the commonalities of European societies looking not just to Western European countries, but Eastern, Central and Southern European countries as well. A perfect introduction for all students of European history.

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sociology

The economic socialisation of young people

The economic socialisation of young peopleThe economic socialisation of young people / Adrian Furnham
London: SAU, 2008. 208 p.

All parents want their children to be 'savvy' about money. All governments want their citizens to be informed, sensible and responsible when it comes to earning, saving, spending and investing money. In his latest book, Professor Adrian Furnham investigates the economic socialisation of children and adolescents. He looks at how, when and why some people become economically literate and others do not, and attempts a comprehensive and critical evaluation of the scattered interdisciplinary research in this much neglected and important field.

This is a book that will be welcomed by many different groups of people—not least parents bewildered by the complexities and pitfalls of pocket-money systems.
 

 

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sociology

Creating capabilities: The human development approach

Creating capabilitiesCreating capabilities: The human development approach / Martha C. Nussbaum
Cambridge, US: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 2011. 237 p.

If a country’s Gross Domestic Product increases each year, but so does the percentage of its people deprived of basic education, health care, and other opportunities, is that country really making progress? If we rely on conventional economic indicators, can we ever grasp how the world’s billions of individuals are really managing?
In this powerful critique, Martha Nussbaum argues that our dominant theories of development have given us policies that ignore our most basic human needs for dignity and self-respect. For the past twenty-five years, Nussbaum has been working on an alternate model to assess human development: the Capabilities Approach. She and her colleagues begin with the simplest of questions: What is each person actually able to do and to be? What real opportunities are available to them?
The Capabilities Approach to human progress has until now been expounded only in specialized works. Creating Capabilities, however, affords anyone interested in issues of human development a wonderfully lucid account of the structure and practical implications of an alternate model. It demonstrates a path to justice for both humans and nonhumans, weighs its relevance against other philosophical stances, and reveals the value of its universal guidelines even as it acknowledges cultural difference. In our era of unjustifiable inequity, Nussbaum shows how—by attending to the narratives of individuals and grasping the daily impact of policy—we can enable people everywhere to live full and creative lives.

catalogue 

sociology

The Europe of elites: A study into the europeanness of Europe's political and economic elites

What money can't buyThe Europe of elites: A study into the europeanness of Europe's political and economic elites / Heinrich Best, György Lengyel and Luca Verzichelli

Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press, 2012. 293 p.

It has been widely acknowledged that the process of European integration and unification was started and is still pursued as an elite project, designed to put an end to debilitating conflicts and rivalries by consolidating a common power base and by pooling Europe's economic resources.  Based on surveys of political and economic elites in 18 European countries, it is a comprehensive study of the visions, fears, cognitions and values of members of national parliaments and top business leaders underlying their attitudes towards European integration. It also investigates political and economic elites' embeddedness in transnational networks and their ability to communicate in multicultural settings. The book strongly supports the view of an elitist character of the process of European integration on the one hand, while challenging the idea that European national elites have merged or are even merging into a coherent Eurelite on the other.

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sociology

What money can't buy: The moral limits of markets

What money can't buy

What money can't buy: The moral limits of markets / Michael J. Sandel
New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2012, 244 p.
ISBN: 978 0 374 20303 0

In recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life—medicine, education, government, law, art, sports, even family life and personal relations. We have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. Is this where we want to be?
What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society—and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets don’t honor and that money can’t buy?
 

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capitalism
sociology