In The Dead Sociologists Society, Mark Stobbe manages to attend a meeting of the Dead Sociologists Society where he learns that the magical struggle between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort really happened. The Harry Potter series was implanted in the mind of J.K. Rowling in order to disguise the turbulent events as fiction. What follows is a brilliant imagining of what the ghosts of famous dead sociologists would make of the elaborate magical world. From the perspective of thinkers, such as Max Weber, Karl Marx, Georg Simmel, Pitirim Sorokin, W.E.B. DuBois, and Emile Durkheim, Stobbe examines questions such as: • Were the secret societies of the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters really that different? • Why was Hermione Granger's attempt to free house-elves from slavery so unsuccessful? • How was stigma handled in the magical world? In addition to chapters written from the perspective of one sociologist, the book contains two panel discussions. In the first, Karl Marx and Max Weber debate the reasons for the technological backwardness of the magical world. In the second, six famous dead criminologists give different explanations for why Tom Riddle became the notorious Lord Voldemort. The Dead Sociologists Society is an entertaining compendium of sociological analyses of the Harry Potter series. Perhaps more importantly, this book offers a serious and insightful journey through classical sociological thought. It is an ideal text for high school and university sociology students.

Throughout history mankind has struggled to reconcile itself with the inescapability of its own mortality. This book explores the themes of immortality and survivalism in contemporary culture, shedding light on the varied and ingenious ways in which humans and human societies aspire to confront and deal with death, or even seek to outlive it, as it were. Bringing together theoretical and empirical work from internationally acclaimed scholars across a range of disciplines, Postmortal Society offers studies of the strategies adopted and means available in modern society for trying to ‘cheat’ death or prolong life, the status of the dead in the modern Western world, the effects of beliefs that address the terror of death in other areas of life, the ‘immortalisation’ of celebrities, the veneration of the dead in virtual worlds, symbolic immortality through work, the implications of understanding ‘immortality’ in chemical-neuronal terms, and the apparent paradox of our greater reverence for the dead in increasingly secular, capitalist societies. A fascinating collection of studies that explore humanity’s attempts to deal with its own mortality in the modern age, this book will appeal to sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers and scholars of cultural studies with interests in death and dying.

"How to rethink social theory in our digital times"--

'Sociology' is relevant to current teaching and courses dealing with sociology as a living subject and incorporating the classic traditions of the discipline. This new edition has been updated with a range of new case studies and additional chapters.

In this sociology textbook/mystery novel, students can join Sherlock Holmes and Watson as they discover a new area ripe for acrimony and intrigue: social theory. In 1910, the most prominent social theorists in the world gather in London for a conference on the new science of sociology. Things rapidly fall apart, though, as a fight breaks out, a jewel is stolen, and famous sociologist Emile Durkheim disappears. As Sherlock Holmes and Watson investigate, it appears that social theory may not only explain actions—in this case, it may be the cause of them. So Holmes and Watson investigate social theory itself, learning directly from those creating it: W.E.B. Du Bois, Sigmund Freud, Vladimir Lenin, Beatrice Webb, Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber. The theories, lives, and passions of each sociologist are revealed as Holmes and Watson learn first-hand just how influential social theory can be.

This text, specifically for AQA specifications, is designed to be easy and encouraging for students to use. The book contains updated material and activities together with a new chapter on study skills. It also indicates clearly where activities meet the new evidence requirements for key skills.

List of members in v. 1, 5-25, 28 (supplemental list in v. 26-27)

This book presents a comprehensive discussion of classical ideas, core topics, currents and detailed theoretical underpinnings in medical sociology. It is a globally renowned source and reference for those interested in social dimensions of health and illness. The presentation is enriched with explanatory and illustrative styles. The design and illustration of details will shift the minds of the readers from mere classroom discourse to societal context (the space of health issues), to consider the implications of those ideas in a way that could guide health interventions. The elemental strengths are the sociological illustrations from African context, rooted in deep cultural interpretations necessitated because Africa bears a greater brunt of health problems. More so, the classical and current epistemological and theoretical discourse presented in this book are indicative of core themes in medical sociology in particular, but cut across a multidisciplinary realm including health social sciences (e.g., medical anthropology, health psychology, medical demography, medical geography and health economics) and health studies (medicine, public health, epidemiology, bioethics and medical humanities) in general. Therefore, apart from the book’s relevance as a teaching text of medical sociology for academics, it is also meant for students at various levels and all health professionals who require a deeper understanding of social dimensions of health and illness (with illustrations from the African context) and sociological contributions to health studies in general.

Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory: Seeing the Social World, Second Edition is an undergraduate sociological theory textbook that introduces the student to the major classical theorists, including Marx, Spencer, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Mead, Schutz, Gilman, and Du Bois. The theorists were chosen for the diversity of their perspectives as well as their ability to introduce the student to contemporary theory. Kenneth Allan uses a lively informative writing style to engage the students in the eras of social change that spawned the major sociological theories and then applies them to the current era, which also is experiencing major social change. Features and benefits: · The book includes a glossary of terms. Each of the theorist’s important concepts are highlighted in the text and clear definitions provided in the glossary. This feature is particularly important because theory is made up of terms and concepts and without the use of a glossary, it is very easy for the undergraduate theory student to lose track of the terms and meanings. · While the book is organized primarily around the individual theorist’s perspective, a categorical scheme is also provided so the student can roughly situate the theorists and decide for themselves some of sociology’s big questions. The scheme provided in the book is not the one usually used by textbooks. The more commonly used scheme (conflict, functional, interaction) hides some really important questions that the student needs to consider (for example, is society an object or does it exist only through interpretations?). · The book provides an appendix with complete definitions of most of sociology’s major "perspectives" e.g., critical theory (including feminism, race, and queer theory, postmodernism, and so on), exchange theory, rational choice theory, dramaturgy, ethnomethodology, structuration, network theory, ecological theory, social phenomenology, and so on. · The book introduces the power and poetry of theory by extensive use of original source material from the theorists writings.