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The ISA Handbook of Diverse Sociological Traditions
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The ISA Handbook of Diverse Sociological Traditions

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November 2009 | 384 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

This latest edition to the ISA handbook series actively engages with the many traditions of sociology in the world.

Twenty-nine chapters from prominent international contributors discuss, challenge and re-conceptualize the global discipline of sociology; evaluating the diversities within and between sociological traditions of many regions and nation-states. They assess all aspects of the discipline: ideas and theories; scholars and scholarship; practices and traditions; ruptures and continuities through an international perspective.

The Handbook argues that diversities in sociological traditions can be studied at three levels:

  • First, they need to be studied from multiple spatial locations: within localities, within nation-states, within regions and the globe.
  • Second, they need to be discussed in terms of their sociological moorings in distinct philosophies, epistemologies and theoretical frames, cultures of science, and languages of reflection.
  • Third, the intellectual moorings of sociological practices are extensive. The papers discuss the diverse and comparative sites of knowledge production and its transmission.

Sections include:

  • Beyond the Classical Theorists: European & American Sociology Today
  • Local Traditions & Universal Sociologies: The Dilemmas of the Post-Communist States of Eastern & Central Europe
  • Authoritarianism & Challenges to Sociology in Latin America
  • The Colonial Heritage & its Sociological Traditions: Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and the Caribbean
  • Local or Universal: Identity & Difference in the Sociology of the Far East


Wide-reaching in scope and ambitious in its aims this handbook is a relevant and challenging resource for students of sociology and practicing sociologists across the globe. Its goal is to become a text for debating the contours of international sociology.


Sujata Patel
Introduction: Diversities of Sociological Traditions
 
PART I: THE DEBATE - ONE SOCIOLOGY OR MANY SOCIOLOGIES
Piotr Sztompka
Chapter 1: One Sociology or Many?
Farid Syed Alatas
Chapter 2: Religion and Reform
Raewyn Connell
Chapter 3: Learning From Each Other - Sociology on a World Scale
Michael Burawoy
Chapter 4: Forging Global Sociology from Below
 
PART II: BEYOND THE CLASSICAL THEORISTS: EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY TODAY
Louis Chauval
Chapter 5: Sociology in the Spiral of Holism and Individualism
Karl-Siebert Rehberg
Chapter 6: Various Traditions and Approaches of German Sociology
John Scott
Chapter 7: Diversity, Dominance and Plurality in British Sociology
Analia Torres
Chapter 8: Sociology, Science and Profession
Craig Calhoun, Troy Duster & Jonathan Van Antwerpen
Chapter 9: Visions and Divisions of American Sociology
 
PART III: LOCAL TRADITIONS AND UNIVERSAL SOCIOLOGIES
Janusz Mucha & Mike F. Keen
Chapter 10: Post-Communist Democratization and the Practice of Sociology in Central and Eastern Europe
Elena Zdravomyslova
Chapter 11: What is Russian Sociological Tradition?
Dénes Némedi
Chapter 12: Traditions and ruptures in Hungarian sociology
Pepka Boyadjieva
Chapter 13: Rediscovering Sociology in Bulgaria
 
PART IV: AUTHORITARIANISM AND CHALLENGES TO SOCIOLOGY IN LATIN AMERICA
Roberto Briceño-León
Chapter 14: Five Dilemmas of Latin America sociology
Fernanda Beigel
Chapter 15: The Creation of New Social Theory in Latin America
Maria Stella, Grossi Porto & Tom Dwyer
Chapter 16: Trajectories of Brazilian Sociology
Diego Pereyra
Chapter 17: Dilemmas, Challenges and Uncertain Boundaries of Argentinean Sociology
 
PART V: THE COLONIAL HERITAGE AND ITS SOGIOLOGICAL TRADITIONS
Ebrima Sall Codesria & Jean-Bernard Ouedraogo
Chapter 18: Sociology in West Africa
Tina Uys
Chapter 19: The Forging of a National Sociological Tradition in South Africa
Sari Hanafi
Chapter 20: Palestinian Sociological Production
Victor Azarya
Chapter 21: Israeli Sociology in Universities and Beyond
Ali Akbar Mahdi
Chapter 22: Sociology in Iran: Between Politics, Religion and Western Influence
Sujata Patel
Chapter 23: At Crosssroads - Sociology in India
Ann Denis
Chapter 24: Ethnicity/race within Sociology in the Commonwealth Caribbean
 
PART VI: LOCAL OR UNIVERSAL - IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE FAR EAST
Shen Yuan & Guo Yuhua (translated by Ching Kwan Lee)
Chapter 25: A New Agenda for the Sociology of Transformation in China
Ming-Chang Tsai
Chapter 25: Evaluating Sociologists in Taiwan
Koto Yousuke
Chapter 26: Sociology in Post World War II Japan
Emma Porio
Chapter 27: Institutionalizing Sociological Practice in the Philippines
Charles Crothers
Chapter 28: Antipodean Traditions of Sociology

Sujata Patel has conjured into existence a brilliant treasury of wisdom and insight drawn from leading sociologists throughout the world, including, for example, Latin America, Africa, India, Europe and the United States. This handbook on sociological traditions not only shows their surprising richness and diversity but also provides a valuable toolkit of concepts, approaches and analyses. It is a striking achievement, of which the International Sociological Association can be very proud, to have brought so many independent-minded scholars into so productive a dialogue

Dennis Smith
Professor of Sociology, Loughborough University


The ISA Handbook is a considerable achievement for bringing together much more information on the development of sociology in many different countries than is available elsewhere between two covers. Its enduring value lies in the richness of this carefully analyzed information about the global production of sociological knowledge. That it also opens the questions of sociological knowledge and power in relation to unity and diversity but without imposing any premature closure on them should be considered its second virtue
Saïd Amir Arjomand
International Sociology Review of Books

Sample Materials & Chapters

Introduction

Chapter One


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