One of the very first books to explore the role of the social sciences in historical, sociological, and global perspectives, it does so by analyzing the practical making and discursive aspects of social scientific disciplines, including sociology, economics, psychology, business and administration studies, social gerontology, gender studies, educational science, geography, and political science. It looks at them not only in their academic setting but also in extra-academic contexts and in ...

The research on educational history has traditionally focused on its institutional, political and pedagogical aspects, more or less habitually analyzing schooling as a top-down, adult-controlled phenomenon. Even if change has been visible during the last decades, there still remain important topics that are rarely discussed in the field. These topics include practices related to day-to-day school life that are not part of the formal curriculum or classroom routine, but which never...

This book offers a brief but comprehensive overview of the history of sociology in Sweden from the prewar period to the present day. It focuses in particular on scientific boundaries, gender and the relationship between sociology and the Swedish welfare state.

»Den goda antologin ställer krav på sina redaktörer. Den goda antologiredaktören har tålamod och finess, egna idéer och mycket hög toleranströskel ... Social Science in Context är ett mycket gott exempel inom genren; det finns en övergripande problematik som håller de olika texterna samman, tankereda och höga ambitioner hos redaktörerna.« Tidskriften ResponsSocial Science in Context is one of the first ventures to explore the relationship between social science an...

This open access book is about socio-spatial theory in, and the nature of, Nordic geography. From both historical and contemporary perspectives, the book engages with theorisations of geography in the Nordic countries. Including chapters by geographers from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, it reflects how theories about the relations between the social and the spatial have been developed, adopted and critiqued in Nordic human geography in relation to a wide range of themes, co...

Sweden is often considered one of the most gender-equal countries in the world and held up as a model to follow, but the reality is more complex. This is the first book to explode the myth of Swedish gender equality, both offering a new perspective for an international audience, and suggesting how equality might be rethought more generally.While the authors argue that the gender-equality mantra in Sweden has led to a society with increased opportunities for some, they also assert t...

Community is a central idea in urban studies but remains conceptually vague and empirically difficult to work with. Building on existing theories of community, Talja Blokland offers an important contribution to defining and understanding this key theme.Blokland argues that there has been too much focus on community as a stable construct, formed by durable relationships with kin, friends, social groups or neighbours. She draws attention to the non-durable, fluid encounters that cons...

Extensively revised and updated, this classic text revisits the central problem of searching for mainstream and alternative paradigms to guide us in comparative political inquiry. Building upon the first edition's comprehensive and systematic overview of frameworks, ideologies, and theories, the second edition highlights new directions and developments over the past decade, including the continuation of an ideological political science methodological innovations such as rational-choice, hi...

There is a growing interest within law schools in the intersections between law and different areas of social theory. The second edition of this popular text introduces a wide range of traditions in sociology and the humanities that offer provocative, contextual views on law and legal institutions.The book is organised into six sections, each with an introduction by the editors, on classical sociology of law, systems theory, critical approaches, law in action, postmodernism, and la...

Finnish education has been a focus of global interest since its first PISA success in 2001. After years of superficial celebration, astonishment and educational tourism, the focus has recently shifted to what is possibly the most interesting element of this Finnish success story: that Finnish schools have been effectively applying methods that go against the flow of global education policy with no testing, no inspection, no hard evaluation, no detailed national curriculum, no accountabilit...

Sociology, the study of human behavior in social groups, is a relatively recent discipline within the social sciences, which examine human behavior, culture, and society using scientific methodology in both research and analysis. This resource explains the rise of the social sciences, in particular sociology, charting the history of the discipline and its founders. The key principles and fundamental theories are examined in detail, and the contemporary status of sociology and today’s major...

The underlying theme of this edited collection is gendered citizenship, as well as the challenges and limits that confront the gendering of citizenship. It critiques the notion of the genderless nation-state citizen — in both analytical and policy terms and contexts — and necessarily engages with at least three major sets of contradictions or tensions: limitations on achieving gender equal or gender equitable citizenship; relations and differences between gender equality policy, diversity ...