Societies; Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives PDF Download

Author: Talcott Parsons
Publisher: Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall
ISBN:
Category : Social evolution
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
This publication deals with societies and their constituent parts.

Author: Dustin R. Rubenstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108132634
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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Book Description
Darwin famously described special difficulties in explaining social evolution in insects. More than a century later, the evolution of sociality - defined broadly as cooperative group living - remains one of the most intriguing problems in biology. Providing a unique perspective on the study of social evolution, this volume synthesizes the features of animal social life across the principle taxonomic groups in which sociality has evolved. The chapters explore sociality in a range of species, from ants to primates, highlighting key natural and life history data and providing a comparative view across animal societies. In establishing a single framework for a common, trait-based approach towards social synthesis, this volume will enable graduate students and investigators new to the field to systematically compare taxonomic groups and reinvigorate comparative approaches to studying animal social evolution.

Author: Jerry O. Wolff
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226905381
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 627

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Book Description
Rodent Societies synthesizes and integrates the current state of knowledge about the social behavior of rodents, providing ecological and evolutionary contexts for understanding their societies and highlighting emerging conservation and management strategies to preserve them. It begins with a summary of the evolution, phylogeny, and biogeography of social and nonsocial rodents, providing a historical basis for comparative analyses. Subsequent sections focus on group-living rodents and characterize their reproductive behaviors, life histories and population ecology, genetics, neuroendocrine mechanisms, behavioral development, cognitive processes, communication mechanisms, cooperative and uncooperative behaviors, antipredator strategies, comparative socioecology, diseases, and conservation. Using the highly diverse and well-studied Rodentia as model systems to integrate a variety of research approaches and evolutionary theory into a unifying framework, Rodent Societies will appeal to a wide range of disciplines, both as a compendium of current research and as a stimulus for future collaborative and interdisciplinary investigations.

Author: Uta Gerhardt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521810227
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Table of contents

Author: A. Javier Treviño
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742509580
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
These ten essays reassess and continue Parson's work in sociology, weighing in on the controversies which continue to surround his thought. Topics include scientific paradigms and organizational culture, Weber's influence, complexity theory, functionalism, generalized symbolic media, the social community, and normative dilemmas. Contributors include scholars of sociology, communications, and behavioral science, from the North America, Europe, and Australia. c. Book News Inc.

Author: Patricia Kennett
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1845421582
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
Kennett has made a major contribution to the comparative study of social policy. The book will undoubtedly serve as a major resource for social policy scholars, and the editor is to be commended for taking on what must have been a Herculean task. . . It is to be hoped that the book will be available in many university libraries. It deserves to be widely consulted not only by those interested in international issues but by anyone concerned with the challenges facing the academic field of social policy today. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare This volume makes a heroic effort to transform the abstractions floating around in the literature on comparative social policy research into a more grounded discussion of what the policy controversies are all about. The contributions in the book climb down the ladder of abstraction which asserts that context, institutions and globalization all count, and that the public private discourse has changed. The book attempts to specifically show how these abstractions matter in recent social policy practice and research. Martin Rein, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US The current context of social policy is one in which many of the old certainties of the past have been eroded. The predominantly inward-looking, domestic preoccupation of social policy has made way for a more integrated, international and outward approach to analysis which looks beyond the boundaries of the state. It is in this context that this Handbook brings together the work of key commentators in the field of comparative analysis in order to provide comprehensive coverage of contemporary debates and issues in cross-national social policy research. Organized around five themes, this impressive volume explores the contextual, conceptual, analytical and processual aspects of undertaking comparative social research. In the first part, the authors are concerned with de-centring the state and extending the epistemological framework through which cross-national analysis is explored. In Parts II and III, the focus is on the conceptual and theoretical frameworks for analysing social policy cross-nationally, while Part IV examines the day-to-day reality of preparing for and carrying out cross-national analysis. In the final section, the authors highlight continuing and emerging themes and issues which are of particular relevance to understanding the contemporary social world. International in scope, this authoritative Handbook presents original cutting-edge research from leading specialists and will become an indispensable source of reference for anyone interested in comparative social research. It will also prove a valuable study aid for undergraduate and postgraduate students from a range of disciplines including social policy, sociology, politics, urban studies and public policy.

Author: Talcott Parsons
Publisher: Prentice Hall
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Discusses the base from which modern societies developed.

Author: Gillian Bentley
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1845459539
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
From a comparative perspective, human life histories are unique and raising offspring is unusually costly: humans have relatively short birth intervals compared to other apes, childhood is long, mothers care simultaneously for many dependent children (other apes raise one offspring at a time), infant mortality is high in natural fertility/mortality populations, and human females have a long post-reproductive lifespan. These features conspire to make child raising very burdensome. Mothers frequently defray these costs with paternal help (not usual in other ape species), although this contribution is not always enough. Grandmothers, elder siblings, paid allocarers, or society as a whole, help to defray the costs of childcare, both in our evolutionary past and now. Studying offspring care in a various human societies, and other mammalian species, a wide range of specialists such as anthropologists, psychologists, animal behaviorists, evolutionary ecologists, economists and sociologists, have contributed to this volume, offering new insights into and a better understanding of one of the key areas of human society.

Author: Jonathan Turner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351173863
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
For decades, evolutionary analysis was overlooked or altogether ignored by sociologists. Fears and biases persisted nearly a century after Auguste Comte gave the discipline its name, as did concerns that its effect would only reduce sociology to another discipline – whether biology, psychology, or economics. Worse, apprehension that the application of evolutionary theory would encourage heightened perceptions of racism, sexism, ethnocentrism and reductionism pervaded. Turner and Machalek argue instead for a new embrace of biology and evolutionary analysis. Sociology, from its very beginnings in the early 19th century, has always been concerned with the study of evolution, particularly the transformation of societies from simple to ever-more complex forms. By comprehensively reviewing the original ways that sociologists applied evolutionary theory and examining the recent renewal and expansion of these early approaches, the authors confront the challenges posed by biology, neuroscience, and psychology to distinct evolutionary approaches within sociology. They emerge with key theoretical and methodological discoveries that demonstrate the critical – and compelling – case for a dramatically enriched sociology that incorporates all forms of comparative evolutionary analysis to its canon and study of sociocultural phenomena.

Author: John K. Rhoads
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271040059
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Critical Issues in Social Theory is an analytical survey of persistent controversies that have shaped the field of sociology. It defines, clarifies, and proposes solutions to these "critical issues" through commentary on the writings of such influential social theorists as Hobbes, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Mead, Merton, Parsons, and Schutz. Instead of being just another history, or another classification of theories, Rhoads's four-part model allows him to focus attention on issues that remain at the core of sociological theory today. First, Rhoads analyzes the controversy over positivism as the proper methodological model for the study of human society. Is there one science, of which sociology is a branch, or do the peculiarities of sociology's subject matter require a modification of the scientific method borrowed from the natural sciences? Rhoads next considers the relationship of individuals to society and its structures. Does society have a mode of existence distinct from its members, or is it merely an abstraction derived from the characteristics of individuals? Third, a discussion of social order raises the question of whether social order is the consequence of rules and their underlying moral values, or the product of continuous construction based on self-interest. Finally, the relative importance of consensus and conflict in social relationships is addressed. Is society better understood as a community united by beliefs, values, and rules, or is the social dynamic of continual conflict over beliefs, values, and rules more fundamental? In coming to grips with these issues, the author in some instances takes sides and in others arrives at a synthesis of diverse perspectives. In the final chapter he points to the limitations on the possibility of rational action that come to light in the clashes over these basic issues.