Critique of rational choice theory and original, cultural analysis of key historical problem.

This volume presents recent developments in identity theory and research. Identities are the basic building blocks of society and hold a central place in every social science discipline. Identity theory provides a systematic conceptualization of identities and their relationship to behavior. The research in this volume demonstrates the usefulness of this theory for understanding identities in action in a variety of areas and settings. The volume is organized into three general areas: ethnicity and race; family, religion, and work; and networks, homophily, and the physical environment. This comprehensive and authoritative volume is of interest to a wide readership in the social and behavioral sciences, including students and researchers of sociology, social psychology, psychology, and other social science disciplines.

The Psychology of Globalization: Identity, Ideology, and Action underpins the necessity to focus on the psychological dimensions of globalization. Overviewing the theory and empirical research as it relates to globalization and psychology, the book focuses on two key domains: social identity and collective action, and political ideology and attitudes. These provide frameworks for addressing four specific topics: (a) environmental challenges, (b) consumer culture, (c) international security, and (d) transnational migration and intra-national cultural diversification. Arguing that individual social representation and behavior are altered by globalizing processes while they simultaneously contribute to these processes, the authors explore economic, political and cultural dimensions.

In politics, individual political behavior is often ascribed to class and ethnic identity. How does this happen? In this text, Needler shows how the individual constructs his or her political identity, and develops ideologies that guide their political behavior. Intended as an alternative to traditional introductory texts in politics and political science, this book is, at the same time, a survey and introduction to political theory, a survey and introduction to comparative and American politics, and a review of contemporary international relations. These topics are combined in a novel and creative way so as to provide a readable and informative text for undergraduate students or laypersons. The author's fresh approach will be welcomed by teachers in politics and political science.

Despite much having been written about what mediation is, direct observations of commercial mediations are limited. This book grants an opportunity to observe mediation in action and also provides external commentary about the actions observed. The book approaches Mediation ethnographically as a social process that is informed by structures, rules and norms that colour the environment within which it operates. Through the ethnographic method, a process leading to negotiated order is examined, baring its elements, identifying its influences and studying the movement to order. The result is the reconceptualization of mediation. The mediator is invited into the negotiation as third party intervener. He creates the process of mediation, defining the process by his actions, which ultimately merges mediator with process. This book provides a window to the lived experience of participants to mediation: it explores their understandings of and interactions within a process they have experienced together and demonstrates how mediation is a process inextricably linked to negotiation. The Fugitive Identity of Mediation will be of interest to scholars, mediators, parties who participate in the process, and to those active in public policy discourse.

First published in 1985. A person may be caught in the midst of a patently ridiculous act, interrupted in a moment of apparent confusion, or even aroused from sleep, and yet respond to a query of What are you doing? with remarkable ease. The answer that is given is an identification of action. It is the central idea of this book that such action identifications perform pivotal functions in a broad range of psychological and social processes.

This book discusses how rulers cultivate their identity for their own self-justification and esteem.

Amidst discontent over America's growing diversity, many white Americans now view the political world through the lens of a racial identity. Whiteness was once thought to be invisible because of whites' dominant position and ability to claim the mainstream, but today a large portion of whites actively identify with their racial group and support policies and candidates that they view as protecting whites' power and status. In White Identity Politics, Ashley Jardina offers a landmark analysis of emerging patterns of white identity and collective political behavior, drawing on sweeping data. Where past research on whites' racial attitudes emphasized out-group hostility, Jardina brings into focus the significance of in-group identity and favoritism. White Identity Politics shows that disaffected whites are not just found among the working class; they make up a broad proportion of the American public - with profound implications for political behavior and the future of racial conflict in America.

Faber (technical communications, Clarkson U.) examines issues relating to the process of organizational change and the process of researching such change, including how people cope with, create, adapt to, and resist change; how people research and talk about it, and the links created and severed between theory and practice, the researcher and the researched, and the academic and the community. The text combines theoretical discussions of these issues--drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, Anthony Giddens, and Pierre Bourdieu--with Faber's firsthand experiences in the study and implementation of change. For academics, businesspeople, not-for-profit organizations, and community action groups interested in a sustained examination of change. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR