Bryan Turner

This textbook provides an ambitious overview of Asia from the perspective of the comparative sociology of culture and social structure. Starting with the history of colonialism and empire, the study examines major dimensions of modern social change from population and migration, the growth of nationalism and communism, and the development of religions, both popular and official. This sociological approach considers the major structural dimensions of Asian societies in terms of gender, sexuality and the family, social class, ethnicity and inequality, and democracy and citizenship. The empirical examples are taken from north and east Asia (China, Vietnam,South Korea and Japan) and from Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia). There are passing references to South Asia, Thailand and the Philippines.Its coherence is provided by a macro-sociological perspective (a modern interpretation of the sociology of Max Weber). The special features of the volume are: a consistent focus on the effects of globalization; attention to the modern legacy of religious traditions (Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity and popular religion); an awareness of the importance of gender, family and reproduction; and finally concluding chapters examining democracy, human rights and citizenship.

This textbook provides an ambitious overview of Asia from the perspective of the comparative sociology of culture and social structure. Starting with the history of colonialism and empire, the study examines major dimensions of modern social change from population and migration, the growth of nationalism and communism, and the development of religions, both popular and official. This sociological approach considers the major structural dimensions of Asian societies in terms of gender, sexuality and the family, social class, ethnicity and inequality, and democracy and citizenship. The empirical examples are taken from north and east Asia (China, Vietnam,South Korea and Japan) and from Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia). There are passing references to South Asia, Thailand and the Philippines.Its coherence is provided by a macro-sociological perspective (a modern interpretation of the sociology of Max Weber). The special features of the volume are: a consistent focus on the effects of globalization; attention to the modern legacy of religious traditions (Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity and popular religion); an awareness of the importance of gender, family and reproduction; and finally concluding chapters examining democracy, human rights and citizenship.

Elites have always ruled – wielding inordinate power and wealth, taking decisions that shape life for the rest. In good times the ‘1%’ can hide their privilege, or use growing social mobility and economic prosperity as a justification. When times get tougher there’s a backlash. So the first years of the twenty-first century – a time of financial crashes, oligarchy and corruption in the West; persistent poverty in the south; and rising inequality everywhere – have brought elites and ‘establishments’ under unprecedented fire. Yet those swept to power by this discontent are themselves a part of the elite, attacking from within and extending rather than ending its agenda. The New Power Elite shows how major political and social change is typically driven by renegade elite fractions, who co-opt or sideline elites’ traditional enemies. It is the first book to combine the politics, economics, sociology and history of elite rule to present a compact, comprehensive account of who’s at the top, and why we let them get there.

First published in 1978, this title analyses a range of problems that arise in the study of North Africa and the Middle East, bridging the gap between studies of Sociology, Islam, and Marxism. Both Sociology and the study of Islam draw on an Orientalist tradition founded on an idealist epistemology, ethnocentric values and an evolutionary view of historical development. Bryan Turner challenges the basic assumptions of Orientalism by considering such issues as the social structure of Islamic society, the impact of capitalism in the Middle East, the effect of Israel on territories, revolutions, social classes and nationalism. A detailed and fascinating study, Marx and the End of Orientalism will be of particular interest to students studying the sociology of colonialism and development, Marxist sociology and sociological theory.

First published in 1978, this title analyses a range of problems that arise in the study of North Africa and the Middle East, bridging the gap between studies of Sociology, Islam, and Marxism. Both Sociology and the study of Islam draw on an Orientalist tradition founded on an idealist epistemology, ethnocentric values and an evolutionary view of historical development. Bryan Turner challenges the basic assumptions of Orientalism by considering such issues as the social structure of Islamic society, the impact of capitalism in the Middle East, the effect of Israel on territories, revolutions, social classes and nationalism. A detailed and fascinating study, Marx and the End of Orientalism will be of particular interest to students studying the sociology of colonialism and development, Marxist sociology and sociological theory.

First published in 1989, this reissue concerns itself with the relevance of Max Weber's sociology for the understanding of modern times. The book outlines key tennets of Weber's sociology and points to the valuable legacy of Weber's thought in contemporary intellectual debate, particularly with regard to secularization and rationalization of global cultures, the crisis of Marxism, the rise of the New Right and the emergence of post-modernism. An authoritative and insightful study bringing to light not only the contemporary relevance of Weber's social theory, but also offering a broad perspective for the analysis of social questions.

First published in 1989, this re-issue concerns itself with the relevance of Max Weber's sociology for the understanding of modern times. The book outlines key tenets of Weber's sociology and points to the valuable legacy of Weber's thought in contemporary intellectual debate, particularly with regard to secularization and rationalization of global cultures, the crisis of Marxism, the rise of the New Right and the emergence of post-modernism. This book offers an authoritative and insightful study which brings to light, not only the contemporary relevance of Weber's social theory, but also offering a broad perspective for the analysis of social questions.

Beginning where Huntington's Clash of Civilizations ends, Fire on the Rim is a call to action, not fatalism; to cultural dialogue, not militancy. However, in rejecting the entrenched pessimism of cultural realists such as Huntington and Kaplan, William Thornton is equally careful to avoid the teleological optimism of a Francis Fukuyama, Thomas Friedman, or even an Anthony Giddens. He argues that the United States is now paying, in terms of 'blowback,' a long-term price for short-term Cold War and subsequent globalist strategies—mistakes that were chosen, not fated. Yet mending these errors will require nothing less than a paradigm shift in geopolitical (post-New World Order) and geoeconomic (post-neoliberal) thought. Fire instantiates this shift within the specific context of the Pacific Rim. In defiance of ideological convention, it combines a call for social justice, cultural difference, and environmental sustainability with a sober recognition of the need for continued balance of power geopolitics, soft and hard. The author's iconoclastic melding of idealist and realist elements will provoke the Right and Left alike, but his call for moral realism is a vital step toward an Asia policy fit for the twenty-first century.