Kirjahaku

In the second edition of this successful and highly regarded supplementary text, Randall Collins has revised his preface and added a new chapter in which he considers how sociology can inform the development of artificial intelligence. As he points out, computer designers and programmers have to consider the social as well as psychological characteristics of human beings in designing computers that can approximate human thinking.

Organized along the same lines as Three Sociological Traditions, Four Sociological Traditions is Randall Collins' updated guide to the development of modern sociology. Explaining in a brief, readable format the 4 main schools of sociological thought, this book represents a concise intellectual history of the development of sociology. Widely adopted as either a main or supplemental text, Four Sociological Traditions presents clearly the conflict tradition of Marx and Weber, the ritual solidarity tradition of Durkheim, and the microinteractionist tradition of Mead, Blumer, and Garfinkel, and - new in this edition - the rational choice/utilitarian tradition. One of the most lively and exciting writers in sociology, Randall Collins introduces students to the roots of social theory, indicating areas where progress has been made in our understanding, as well as those areas where controversy still exists. Students will find Four Sociological Traditions a fresh, thorough, and thought-provoking examination.

What is charisma? And how does it generate influence and power? World-renowned sociologist Randall Collins explores these and many other questions in a highly readable exploration of the various forms of charisma and how charisma elevated Jesus, Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia, Queen Elizabeth, Hitler, Churchill, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Madame Mao Zedong, and others. He explores four types of charisma: frontstage, backstage, success-magic, and reputational charisma. Not everyone has the same kind of charisma and Collin’s identifies important differences and their relations to power. The book exemplifies Collin’s sophisticated micro-sociology in accessible and compelling prose, quietly building subtle matrices of analysis that show how sociology unveils hidden discoveries.

What is charisma? And how does it generate influence and power? World-renowned sociologist Randall Collins explores these and many other questions in a highly readable exploration of the various forms of charisma and how charisma elevated Jesus, Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia, Queen Elizabeth, Hitler, Churchill, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Madame Mao Zedong, and others. He explores four types of charisma: frontstage, backstage, success-magic, and reputational charisma. Not everyone has the same kind of charisma and Collin’s identifies important differences and their relations to power. The book exemplifies Collin’s sophisticated micro-sociology in accessible and compelling prose, quietly building subtle matrices of analysis that show how sociology unveils hidden discoveries.

Randall Collins convincingly argues that much of Max Weber’s work has been misunderstood, and that many of his most striking and sophisticated theories have been overlooked. By analysing hitherto little known aspects of Weber’s writings, Professor Collins is able both to offer a new interpretation of Weberian sociology and to show how the more fruitful lines of the Weberian approach can be projected to an analysis of current world issues. Professor Collins begins with Weber’s theory of the rise of capitalism, examining it in the light of Weber’s later writings on the subject and extending the Weberian line of reasoning to suggest a ‘Weberian revolution’ in both medieval Europe and China. He also offers a new interpretation of Weber’s theory of politics, showing it to be a ‘world-system’ model; and he expands this into a theory of geopolitics, using as a particular illustration the prediction of the future decline of Russian world power. Another ‘buried treasure’ in the corpus is Weber’s conflict theory of the family as sex and property, which Professor Collins applies to the historical question of the conditions that led to the initial rise in the status of women. The broad view of Weber’s works shows that Weberian sociology remains intellectually alive and that many of his theories still represent the frontier of our knowledge about large-scale social processes.

Randall Collins traces the movement of philosophical thought in ancient Greece, China, Japan, India, the medieval Islamic and Jewish world, medieval Christendom, and modern Europe. What emerges from this history is a social theory of intellectual change, one that avoids both the reduction of ideas to the influences of society at large and the purely contingent local construction of meanings. Instead, Collins focuses on the social locations where sophisticated ideas are formed: the patterns of intellectual networks and their inner divisions and conflicts.

Sex, smoking, and social stratification are three very different social phenomena. And yet, argues sociologist Randall Collins, they and much else in our social lives are driven by a common force: interaction rituals. Interaction Ritual Chains is a major work of sociological theory that attempts to develop a "radical microsociology." It proposes that successful rituals create symbols of group membership and pump up individuals with emotional energy, while failed rituals drain emotional energy. Each person flows from situation to situation, drawn to those interactions where their cultural capital gives them the best emotional energy payoff. Thinking, too, can be explained by the internalization of conversations within the flow of situations; individual selves are thoroughly and continually social, constructed from the outside in. The first half of Interaction Ritual Chains is based on the classic analyses of Durkheim, Mead, and Goffman and draws on micro-sociological research on conversation, bodily rhythms, emotions, and intellectual creativity. The second half discusses how such activities as sex, smoking, and social stratification are shaped by interaction ritual chains. For example, the book addresses the emotional and symbolic nature of sexual exchanges of all sorts--from hand-holding to masturbation to sexual relationships with prostitutes--while describing the interaction rituals they involve. This book will appeal not only to psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists, but to those in fields as diverse as human sexuality, religious studies, and literary theory.

In the popular misconception fostered by blockbuster action movies and best-selling thrillers--not to mention conventional explanations by social scientists--violence is easy under certain conditions, like poverty, racial or ideological hatreds, or family pathologies. Randall Collins challenges this view in Violence, arguing that violent confrontation goes against human physiological hardwiring. It is the exception, not the rule--regardless of the underlying conditions or motivations. Collins gives a comprehensive explanation of violence and its dynamics, drawing upon video footage, cutting-edge forensics, and ethnography to examine violent situations up close as they actually happen--and his conclusions will surprise you. Violence comes neither easily nor automatically. Antagonists are by nature tense and fearful, and their confrontational anxieties put up a powerful emotional barrier against violence. Collins guides readers into the very real and disturbing worlds of human discord--from domestic abuse and schoolyard bullying to muggings, violent sports, and armed conflicts. He reveals how the fog of war pervades all violent encounters, limiting people mostly to bluster and bluff, and making violence, when it does occur, largely incompetent, often injuring someone other than its intended target. Collins shows how violence can be triggered only when pathways around this emotional barrier are presented. He explains why violence typically comes in the form of atrocities against the weak, ritualized exhibitions before audiences, or clandestine acts of terrorism and murder--and why a small number of individuals are competent at violence. Violence overturns standard views about the root causes of violence and offers solutions for confronting it in the future.

A concise overview of sociology's greatest classic thinker. Weber emerges as a multisided intellectual personality, whose intellectual ambivalence is related to a neurotic breakdown in mid career and to the compromises he was forced to make among the conflicting politievanscal and intellectual currents of his time. Here we see what kinds of philosophical idealism Weber favored and what kinds he rejected, as well as his position on the "battle of methods" among the economists of his day. Weber's famous "Protestant Ethic" thesis is put in proper perspective as an intellectual gambit in one particular period of his life, rather than as his central achievement. Weber's overall view of social change is examined, drawing on several of his crucial but little-known works, on the sociology of ancient agrarian societies and on the long chain of organizational conditions that finally led to modern capitalism. Also treated are Weber's major works on the sociology of religion and his contributions to systematic theory, especially social stratification. The many strands of Weber's theorizing, and his tremendous scope of comparisons across world history, are here brought into a clear and manageable focus. "Randall Collins is the leading sociological theorist of his generation. He has also done more than anyone else to use and develop Weberian sociology. Accordingly we expect much from Collins on Weber and Max Weber does not disappoint." --Whitney Pope, Indiana University "A lively, efficient, reliable interpretation, captivating for the novice, provocative for the expert. . . . Typical Collins." --Alan Sica, University of Kansas "A good introductory survey of Weber's major writings. It is interesting reading and highly informative." --Contemporary Sociology "A good capsule biography . . . very readable . . . honors clarity, style, and the value of popular understanding." --The Madison Independent Books in Review "Ideal for an introductory course on Weber." --Ethics

A concise overview of sociology's greatest classic thinker. Weber emerges as a multisided intellectual personality, whose intellectual ambivalence is related to a neurotic breakdown in mid career and to the compromises he was forced to make among the conflicting politievanscal and intellectual currents of his time. Here we see what kinds of philosophical idealism Weber favored and what kinds he rejected, as well as his position on the "battle of methods" among the economists of his day. Weber's famous "Protestant Ethic" thesis is put in proper perspective as an intellectual gambit in one particular period of his life, rather than as his central achievement. Weber's overall view of social change is examined, drawing on several of his crucial but little-known works, on the sociology of ancient agrarian societies and on the long chain of organizational conditions that finally led to modern capitalism. Also treated are Weber's major works on the sociology of religion and his contributions to systematic theory, especially social stratification. The many strands of Weber's theorizing, and his tremendous scope of comparisons across world history, are here brought into a clear and manageable focus. "Randall Collins is the leading sociological theorist of his generation. He has also done more than anyone else to use and develop Weberian sociology. Accordingly we expect much from Collins on Weber and Max Weber does not disappoint." --Whitney Pope, Indiana University "A lively, efficient, reliable interpretation, captivating for the novice, provocative for the expert. . . . Typical Collins." --Alan Sica, University of Kansas "A good introductory survey of Weber's major writings. It is interesting reading and highly informative." --Contemporary Sociology "A good capsule biography . . . very readable . . . honors clarity, style, and the value of popular understanding." --The Madison Independent Books in Review "Ideal for an introductory course on Weber." --Ethics

This book explores the accomplishments of the golden age of "macrohistory," the sociologically informed analysis of long-term patterns of political, economic, and social change that has reached new heights of sophistication in the last decades of the twentieth century. It describes the scholarly revolution that has taken place in the Marxian-inspired theory of revolutions, the shift to a state-breakdown model in which revolutions, rather than bubbling up from discontent below, start at the top in the fiscal strains of the state. The author links revolutions to military-centered transformations of the state, and reviews how he used this theory in the early 1980s to predict the breakdown of the Soviet empire. He goes on to show the implications of viewing states and societies from the outside in, including the geopolitical patterns that affect the legitimacy of dominant ethnic groups and thus determine the direction of ethnic assimilation or fragmentation. Another application is the author's new theory of democratization, which asserts that democracy depends not merely on a widening of the franchise but on a geopolitical pattern favoring federated structures of collegially shared power. Using this new theoretical tool, the author argues that Anglophone scholars have polemically misinterpreted German history, and that the roots of the Holocaust cannot be determined by German-bashing but must be attributed to processes that affect all of us. Other essays generalize about the historical dynamics and transformations of markets. Going beyond Weber's Eurocentric model, the author proposes a more general theory that explains the origins of capitalism in Japan on an independent but parallel path.

This sequel to Randall Collins' world-influential micro-sociology of violence introduces the question of time-dynamics: what determines how long conflict lasts and how much damage it does. Inequality and hostility are not enough to explain when and where violence breaks out. Time-dynamics are the time-bubbles when people are most nationalistic; the hours after a protest starts when violence is most likely to happen. Ranging from the three months of nationalism and hysteria after 9/11 to the assault on the Capitol in 2021, Randall Collins shows what makes some protests more violent than others and why some revolutions are swift and non-violent tipping-points while others devolve into lengthy civil wars. Winning or losing are emotional processes, continuing in the era of computerized war, while high-tech spawns terrorist tactics of hiding in the civilian population and using cheap features of the Internet as substitutes for military organization. Nevertheless, Explosive Conflict offers some optimistic discoveries on clues to mass rampages and heading off police atrocities, with practical lessons from time-dynamics of violence.

This sequel to Randall Collins' world-influential micro-sociology of violence introduces the question of time-dynamics: what determines how long conflict lasts and how much damage it does. Inequality and hostility are not enough to explain when and where violence breaks out. Time-dynamics are the time-bubbles when people are most nationalistic; the hours after a protest starts when violence is most likely to happen. Ranging from the three months of nationalism and hysteria after 9/11 to the assault on the Capitol in 2021, Randall Collins shows what makes some protests more violent than others and why some revolutions are swift and non-violent tipping-points while others devolve into lengthy civil wars. Winning or losing are emotional processes, continuing in the era of computerized war, while high-tech spawns terrorist tactics of hiding in the civilian population and using cheap features of the Internet as substitutes for military organization. Nevertheless, Explosive Conflict offers some optimistic discoveries on clues to mass rampages and heading off police atrocities, with practical lessons from time-dynamics of violence.

President Joshua Maccabee Jennings has just taken office, vowing to Make America Christian Again.When a Supreme Court Justice dies unexpectedly, the government falls into crisis, and the secular states start seceding, forming the Coalition of Secular States of America. President Jennings declares war to stop America's dissolution--no matter what the consequences.The new Civil War will be like nothing America has faced before.And in Part 2, find out America's fate.

In Part 1 of Civil War Two, President Jennings tried to Make America Christian Again. The Secular States would have none of it.The President declared war to stop America's dissolution, no matter the consequences.Now America has been killing itself for 2 long years; Christian states versus secular. The world's most advanced military has divided against itself. New York City is under attack.There's no end in sight and seemingly no hope of the nation ever healing.America survived one Civil War--but are the divisions now just too great? How bad do things have to get before everyone has had enough?When Americans turn on each other, there's no turning back. Can America be saved?

The United States of America are united no more.CIVIL WAR TWO is a what-if story: What if the USA splits in two? How might a new Civil War play out?Are we facing the end of America?2018's CIVIL WAR TWO was an epic of over 700 pages presented in two volumes. Now for the first time, the meat and bones of America's future have been distilled into a single volume of concentrated force: CIVIL WAR TWO: The Condensed One-Volume Edition. "Civil War Two is a first-rate thriller, an epic history of a possible American future, and a compelling read you will be unable to put down."- Paul DiMaggio, Professor of Sociology, NYU Department of Sociology "In the world of sociologists, Randall Collins enjoys a unique professional reputation. This is far from mere fantasy; it is a solidly built, scary hypothesis about a possible future of America."- Georgi Derluguian, expert on modern civil wars, Carnegie Scholar, and Professor of Social Research and Public Policy NYU Abu Dhabi "In this perfectly timed and engaging prophetic novel, Randall Collins revisits themes central to his sociology-history, violence, war, emotions, human interactions-to give a troubling picture of the world ahead. A must for those looking for a most engaging read "- Mich le Lamont, Harvard University, Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies "In Civil War Two, Collins provides a believable and timely account of a country divided between secularists and religious zealots. The politics of romance and espionage, of human frailty and ambition, all jump from the page-Collins provides a masterful account ofwhat a second US civil war would feel like from the inside."- Randol Contreras, University of Toronto, AssistantProfessor of Sociology, author of The Stickup Kids "Civil War 2 is a timely and compelling novel about what could beAmerica's next Civil War. The writing is exceptional. Collins has created vivid characters that superbly weave his narrative andpowerfully brings his story home-an engrossing read." - Elijah Anderson, Yale University, author of Code of the Street "Collins has channeled his deep knowledge of human violence and the intricacies of combat into a taut and compelling what if fantasy that takes the cultural fissures of our nation to full scale rupture."- Alice Goffman, author ofOn The Run: Fugitive Life in an American City

Är sociologi ett studium av självklarheter, draperat i jargong? Tvärtom. Randall Collins ger läsaren en blick för sociologisk forskning när den är som mest fängslande. I denna välkända introduktionsbok problematiseras det till synes uppenbara. Gamla oreflekterade föreställningar om samhället och vårt sociala liv visar sig vara just oreflekterade intuitioner som inte håller streck när man undersöker dem noga. Med utgångspunkt i rationalitetens begränsningar och vikten av sociala ritualer, diskuterar Collins en rad spännande områden som makt, brottslighet, sex, kärlek och kvinnans position i samhället.Genom sin förmåga att behandla djupa och svåra sociologiska frågor med ett klart och elegant språk, har Collins åstadkommit något så ovanligt som en introduktion som är av intresse också för avancerade studenter och forskare.Ur bokens förord:"Boken uppvisar sociologin när den är som bäst, men illustrerar också hur en bra sociolog tänker, skriver och ser."Thomas Brante, professor i sociologi vid Lunds universitet