<p>Although status is an essential concept in classical sociology and a crucial feature of social structure, it has been much criticized in contemporary social theory and to some extent replaced by a Marxist concept of economic class. In this book, Bryan Turner argues that social stratification has three major political-legal rights (status as entitlement), cultural distinction (status as life-style) and economic class. The relationships between these elements are historically contingent and determined by social struggles over resources. He examines the historical variations between these dimensions in slavery, feudalism and capitalism, and argues that in contemporary society the decline of economic class and the struggle between status groups over welfare resources have given life to a new form of political status bloc politics under the administration of the state. His analysis of status concludes with an examination of the effects of mass consumption on cultural distinction and a consideration of the implications of cultural postmodernism for the traditional struggle between high and low culture. His main thesis is that economic, political and cultural inequalities can only be understood from a conflict-sociology perspective.</p>

Status (Concepts in the social sciences)

Politics & Social Sciences

Bryan S. Turner

Social Sciences

U of Minnesota Press

Can democracy provide a path to socialism? Can civil rights and democratic institutions be protected and developed in a socialist society? Does our view of the nature and value of democracy affect our understanding of socialism itself? In a world with regimes which profess to be socialist, which socialism is worth defending today? This volume re-examines the uneasy relation between socialism and democracy. It argues that Marxist theory has failed to provide an adequate account of the nature and role of the state in socialist society, and defends the concept of representative democracy. Bobbio's arguments sparked off a lively debate in Italy; this volume includes a reply by Antonio Negri. The volume also includes an essay by Bobbio on Marxism and international relations, and his text on Gramsci's conception of civil society.

Which socialism?: Marxism, socialism, and democracy

Bobbio, Norberto (Roger Griffin, Translator & Richard Bellamy, Editor/Intro)

Politics & Government

During the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Christian missionary movement in China was disrupted by an increasing number of antiforeign riots. Britain led the other European powers in an unsuccessful efforts to quell these outbreaks. By 1900, these riots had merged with a massive grass-roots rebellion, the Boxer rising, which culminated in the siege of the legations in Peking. The problem of the missionaries created a dilemma in British diplomacy, since England had entered China primarily for purposes of trade, and support of the embattled missionaries led to a series of international incidents which disrupted the commercial relationship and tended to involve Britain in China's internal affairs.  Professor Wehrle provides a detailed account of Anglo-Chinese relations and the missionary movement during this period. Much of the material is based on newly opened records of the British Foreign Office. Other important sources for the study were the papers of the third Marquess of Salisbury and the archives of the missionary groups involved, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Church Missionary Society, and the London Missionary Society.  Anyone with a special interest in the background of China's relations with the West will find this an absorbing and illuminating piece of history. It will be of particular interest also to those concerned with church history.

Britain, China and the Antimissionary Riots, 1891-1900

Edmund S. Wehrle

History

Postmodernity (Concepts in Social Thought)

David, Lyon

Urban Exile Collected Writings of Harry Gamboa, Jr

Harry Gamboa, Jr.

Microfinance and Its Discontents

Lamia Karim

Worlds of Autism Across the Spectrum of Neurological Difference

Michael Orsini

Joyce Davidson

Sexuality in School The Limits of Education

Jen Gilbert

Compulsory Education and the Dispossession of Youth in a Prison School

Sabina E. Vaught

Circulating Queerness Before the Gay and Lesbian Novel

Natasha Hurley

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