scholarly journals Review of What is Political Sociology? by Nga Than

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nga Than
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Political Sociology ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Formal Institutions ◽  
Nation States

In What is Political Sociology?, Elisabeth S. Clemens offers a smart primer on political sociology that asks what is distinct about this sub-field. By surveying its main concepts and research agendas—power and politics, states, nation-states, social movements, social change, and transnationalism—she shows how political sociology examines social processes that influence both formal politics and the politics that take place in everyday settings. Clemens notes that that political sociology differs from political science in that the former studies politics in various settings and that patterns of political participation and the distribution of political power are shaped by social relations, while the latter studies “the formal institutions and acts of governing” (p.1).

Rereading Skowronek

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-453
Author(s):  
Elisabeth S. Clemens
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Political Science ◽  
American History ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Political Sociology ◽  
American Political Development ◽  
The Impact

Although American Political Development is one of the more sociological corners of political science, for the most part sociologists have not been attuned to its contributions. Even among historical sociologists, the central conversations have been motivated by classic questions about transitions to capitalism and revolution in Europe rather than by puzzles of American exceptionalism.Much of political sociology has focused on individual voting behavior and public opinion; social movements research focuses heavily on the most recent decades in American history. Consequently, a review of the impact of Stephen Skowronek’s Building a New American State within sociology reveals a sharply delimited set of direct influences beyond the research already well known to scholars in American Political Development, largely the work of Theda Skocpol (1992) and her many students and collaborators (e.g., Orloff and Skocpol 1984). A rereading, by contrast, highlights the importance of the book for contemporary discussions of the forms and processes of institutional change.

Non-Governmental Organisations and Legitimacy: Authority, Power and Resources

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Gnes ◽  
Floris Vermeulen
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Political Sociology ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Moral Basis ◽  
Organisational Sociology ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

In the analysis of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), legitimacy and legitimation are useful concepts because they bring to light the processes through which organisational entities justify their right to exist and their actions within a particular normative context. Theories of legitimacy underscore the moral basis of organisational power as grounded in the relationship between organisations and different kinds of audiences. In this article, we look at how those concepts and theories relate to the study of NGOs. Those theories not only help us understand how organisations establish themselves, strengthen their position and survive over time despite very limited material resources of their own, but also how organisations may build political power. In our review of the literature on organisational legitimacy, we focus on three main aspects of legitimacy: the conceptualisation of the term in organisational sociology, political sociology and political science; the constraining role of institutionalised normative contexts and competing audiences in the legitimation processes; the agentic role of organisations within both institutional and strategic contexts.

Making History from Above and Below: Elite and Popular Perspectives on Politics

1994 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Lachmann ◽  
Nelson A. Pichardo
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social History ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Major Element ◽  
Political Sociology ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Dominant Tendency

The study of social movements from “below” has been a major element in political sociology, and perhaps the dominant tendency in social history, in recent decades. While bringing welcome attention to neglected historical actors and episodes, much of this literature carries a congratulatory air without managing to identify the results of such movements or to specify the mechanisms by which actors effect change from below. The four essays discussed here (three appear in this issue and one, by Mark Traugott, will appear in the next issue) all contribute to understanding the consequences of popular social action by placing it in the context of recurrent elite efforts to assert power. They demonstrate that examining the structure of social relations is a precondition for understanding the possibilities for, and effects of, agency by both elites and popular groups.

scholarly journals On Power and Open-ended Process of Social Change

2018 ◽  
pp. 78-100
Author(s):  
Hector Cuadra-Montiel ◽  
Sandra Carmona
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Processes Of Change ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Core ◽  
Economic Trends ◽  
Rational Choice Institutionalism

This article aims to identify the factors which trigger social change, and what makes such possible. The argument opens by presenting a critical analysis of rational choice institutionalism for understanding the process of change. It is immediately followed by a section which argues that the identification of immanent power in all social relations represents the core factor for explaining the open-ended social processes of change. Furthermore, since social processes entail social changes, it is recognized that the interactions among ideational, material, structural and agential elements within time and space are crucial. For, it is argued that neither political, nor economic trends determine the outcomes of processes, because public and private functions and activities can play complementary roles of one another. It is also stressed that the internal appropriation of change contributes to the incremental, punctuated and evolutionary character of social change. 

Between the Social and the Political

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-98
Author(s):  
Pia Rowe ◽  
David Marsh
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Conventional Theory ◽  
Important Relationship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Action Language

While Wood and Flinders’ work to broaden the scope of what counts as “politics” in political science is a needed adjustment to conventional theory, it skirts an important relationship between society, the protopolitical sphere, and arena politics. We contend, in particular, that the language of everyday people articulates tensions in society, that such tensions are particularly observable online, and that this language can constitute the beginning of political action. Language can be protopolitical and should, therefore, be included in the authors’ revised theory of what counts as political participation.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Whyman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Literate Society

The introduction shows the convergence and intertwining of the Industrial Revolution and the provincial Enlightenment. At the centre of this industrial universe lay Birmingham; and at its centre was Hutton. England’s second city is described in the mid-eighteenth century, and Hutton is used as a lens to explore the book’s themes: the importance of a literate society shared by non-elites; the social category of ‘rough diamonds’; how individuals responded to economic change; political participation in industrial towns; shifts in the modes of authorship; and an analysis of social change. The strategy of using microhistory, biography, and the history of the book is discussed, and exciting new sources are introduced. The discovery that self-education allowed unschooled people to participate in literate society renders visible people who were assumed to be illiterate. This suggests that eighteenth-century literacy was greater than statistics based on formal schooling indicate.

Getting to a Utopian World Beyond Gender

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara J. Risman
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Utopian Vision ◽  
Structure Framework ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Inclusive Society ◽  
Fourth Wave ◽  
Different Levels

This final chapter suggests that the incompatibilities of expectations and realities at different levels of the gender structure create “crises tendencies” that may provide leverage that future activists can use to push for social change. While some contemporary social movements agitating for a more feminist and gender inclusive society appear to conflict with each other, Risman argues that using a gender structure framework allows seemingly contradictory feminist and gender inclusive movements to understood they are not alternatives but rather a tapestry, each one taking aim at a different level of our complex gender structure. The chapter concludes with a utopian vision: a call for a fourth wave of feminism to dismantle the gender structure. Since the gender structure constrains freedom, to move toward a more just future we must leave it behind.

Negotiating Political Power at ‘Critical Junctures’: Women and Constitution Drafting in South Africa and India

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110258
Author(s):  
Nila Mohanan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Gain Access

From a feminist institutionalist perspective, this article engages in a comparative analysis of South Africa, one of the only post-transition democracies where women organized as a distinct interest group representing gender interests were able to negotiate and gain access to political power, and India, where women’s participation was predominantly as ‘nationalist women’. It argues that constitution drafting is a decisive critical juncture when descriptive representation can be translated very effectively into the substantive representation of women as equal citizens, provided women qua women and as gender-conscious agents are able to intervene to promote the cause of their effective political participation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document