Sociology Today

Arnaud Sales holds a Doctorat d'Etat es Lettres et Sciences Humaines, from Universite de Paris 7-Denis Diderot. He is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Montreal, Canada. He is a specialist in economic sociology focusing on the interface of the economic and political fields. His research interests center on the relations between the public and private spheres, and the emergence of international private authorities; economic and administrative elites, and knowledge workers; the role of knowledge in social transformations. His publications include: La Bourgeoisie industrielle au Quebec (PUM, 1979); Decideurs et gestionnaires (Editeur officiel du Quebec, 1985); He has edited or co-edited the following volumes: Developpement national et economie mondialisee (Sociologie et Societes, 1979); La recomposition du politique (PUM/L'Harmattan, 1991); Quebec, fin de siecle (Sociologie et Societes,1994); The International Handbook of Sociology (Sage, 2000); New Directions in the Study of Knowledge, Economy and Society (SSIS, Current Sociology, Sage, 2001); Knowledge, Communication and Creativity, (Sage, 2007). He was Vice-Dean of the Universite de Montreal's Faculty of Graduate Studies (1987-1992) and has chaired the Department of Sociology (2000-2007). He is a former Vice-President, International, of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (1995-1998) where he founded the Knowledge, Economy and Society Network with R. Hollingsworth. After chairing the ISA Research Committee 02 on Economy and Society, he was elected Vice-President for Research (1998-2002) of the International Sociological Association and chaired ISA Research Council. In 2006, he was named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques of France.

PART I: INTRODUCTION Chapter 1: Transformations in the Multiple Domains of a Turbulent World - Arnaud Sales PART II: CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES FOR UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE Chapter 2: A Re-Appraisal of Agency-Structure Theories to Understand Social Change - Arnaud Sales Chapter 3: Global Society and Polyarchic Governance - Alberto Martinelli Chapter 4: Social Transformations and Knowledge - Nico Stehr & Bernd Weiler PART III: RECOMPOSITION OF THE POLITICAL DOMAIN AND CHALLENGES TO CIVIL SOCIETY Chapter 5: Political Sociology Responds to Change - Kay Lawson, Mildred Schwartz & Eva Etzioni-Halevy Chapter 6: Global Social Movements - Politics, Subjectivity and Human Rights - Pierre Hamel, Henri Lustiger-Thaler & Louis Maheu PART IV: THE TRANSFORMATION OF ORGANIZATIONS AND WORK Chapter 7: Transforming Organizations - Stewart Clegg Chapter 8: Transformations of Work in a Global Context - Employment Systems, Autonomy and Work-life Articulation as Main Challenges - Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay Chapter 9: Reconnections - Labour Sociologies in a Globalizing Era - Carla Lipsig-Mumme & Edward Webster Chapter 10: Returning to Professions - Julia Evetts PART V: THE TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE WORLD AND CULTURE Chapter 11: Challenging Women's Domination and Striving for Equity and the Respect of Difference - Ann Denis Chapter 12: Family Change and Lifecourse Development - Social Transformations on the Intimate Frontiers - Susan A. McDaniel Chapter 13: The Waning of Religious Beliefs in Thirty European Countries - Empirical Evidence - Mattei Dogan Chapter 14: The Culture Society - An Heuristic for Analyzing Cultural Change in the Global Age - Arturo Rodriguez Morato Chapter 15: Power and Global Sport - Zones of Prestige, Emulation and Resistance - Joseph Maguire PART VI: TRANSFORMATION OF FRAMES AND CONDITIONS OF SOCIAL EXISTENCE Chapter 16: Comparative Social Transformations in Urban Regimes - Sophie Body-Gendrot, Marisol Garcia & Enzo Mingione Chapter 17: Globalization and the Transformation of Disease and Health Care - William C. Cockerham & Geoffrey B. Cockerham Chapter 18: The Dynamics of Migration and Social Transformations - Han Entzinger

In a remarkable feat of collaboration, Arnaud Sales has persuaded several of the world's leading sociologists to contribute to a truly student-friendly text that ranges over the often quite subtle transformations that today's 'networked' world have made to both the concepts and objects of the discipline. Overall the book manages a welcomed reassertion of the continuing need for a broadly institutionalist, macro-sociological perspective. Steve Fuller Auguste Comte Professor of Social Epistemology, University of Warwick o livro "Sociology Today" apresenta tanto uma sintese bastante acurada do contexto atualexperenciado pelas sociedades nacionais e global, e a multiplicidade de fenomenos implicados; quanto uma leituraatual das diferentes perspectivas teoricas que, com destaque, tem auxiliado na compreensao do processo de rapidatransformacao social global experenciado nas ultimas decadas. -- Leandro Raizer The edited volume from Arnaud Sales "Sociology Today" provides a concise anthology of sociological debates on social transformation processes. A strength of the book is the bringing together of diverse theoretical positions under a broadly defined institutionalist perspective which focuses on the interaction of strategies of action, institutions and social structures. In doing so, the book convinces with a well-structured layout which presents the extensive range of topics in a transparent manner. -- Alexander Ebner Ce livre est foisonnant. La majorite des chapitres presente des analyses riches, des points de vue novateurs. Il presente un caractere nettement pedagogique par plusieurs aspects : La grande variete des champs couverts ; Chaque article est accompagne d'une liste de questions de discussion qui se presentent comme des exercices permettant au lecteur d'interroger sa comprehension du texte et eventuellement de l'approfondir ; Chaque article est aussi complete par une abondante bibliographie. Il est donc particulierement adapte a une utilisation par des enseignants et des etudiants soucieux de trouver une revue des questions que se posent les sociologues par rapport a la globalisation du monde. Aux lecteurs qui ne trouveront pas l'equivalent en francais, il propose un condense des reflexions de sociologues anglophones sur ces questions. -- Alain Degenne