The Credential Society

2019-05-28
The Credential Society

PDF The Credential Society Download

  • Author: Randall Collins
  • Publisher: Columbia University Press
  • ISBN: 0231549784
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 255

The Credential Society is a classic on the role of higher education in American society and an essential text for understanding the reproduction of inequality. Controversial at the time, Randall Collins’s claim that the expansion of American education has not increased social mobility, but rather created a cycle of credential inflation, has proven remarkably prescient. Collins shows how credential inflation stymies mass education’s promises of upward mobility. An unacknowledged spiral of the rising production of credentials and job requirements was brought about by the expansion of high school and then undergraduate education, with consequences including grade inflation, rising educational costs, and misleading job promises dangled by for-profit schools. Collins examines medicine, law, and engineering to show the ways in which credentialing closed these high-status professions to new arrivals. In an era marked by the devaluation of high school diplomas, outcry about the value of expensive undergraduate degrees, and the proliferation of new professional degrees like the MBA, The Credential Society has more than stood the test of time. In a new preface, Collins discusses recent developments, debunks claims that credentialization is driven by technological change, and points to alternative pathways for the future of education.

Violence

2009-08-03
Violence

PDF Violence Download

  • Author: Randall Collins
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press
  • ISBN: 140083175X
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 580

In the popular misconception fostered by blockbuster action movies and best-selling thrillers--not to mention conventional explanations by social scientists--violence is easy under certain conditions, like poverty, racial or ideological hatreds, or family pathologies. Randall Collins challenges this view in Violence, arguing that violent confrontation goes against human physiological hardwiring. It is the exception, not the rule--regardless of the underlying conditions or motivations. Collins gives a comprehensive explanation of violence and its dynamics, drawing upon video footage, cutting-edge forensics, and ethnography to examine violent situations up close as they actually happen--and his conclusions will surprise you. Violence comes neither easily nor automatically. Antagonists are by nature tense and fearful, and their confrontational anxieties put up a powerful emotional barrier against violence. Collins guides readers into the very real and disturbing worlds of human discord--from domestic abuse and schoolyard bullying to muggings, violent sports, and armed conflicts. He reveals how the fog of war pervades all violent encounters, limiting people mostly to bluster and bluff, and making violence, when it does occur, largely incompetent, often injuring someone other than its intended target. Collins shows how violence can be triggered only when pathways around this emotional barrier are presented. He explains why violence typically comes in the form of atrocities against the weak, ritualized exhibitions before audiences, or clandestine acts of terrorism and murder--and why a small number of individuals are competent at violence. Violence overturns standard views about the root causes of violence and offers solutions for confronting it in the future.

Interaction Ritual Chains

2014-05-06
Interaction Ritual Chains

PDF Interaction Ritual Chains Download

  • Author: Randall Collins
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press
  • ISBN: 1400851742
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 465

Sex, smoking, and social stratification are three very different social phenomena. And yet, argues sociologist Randall Collins, they and much else in our social lives are driven by a common force: interaction rituals. Interaction Ritual Chains is a major work of sociological theory that attempts to develop a "radical microsociology." It proposes that successful rituals create symbols of group membership and pump up individuals with emotional energy, while failed rituals drain emotional energy. Each person flows from situation to situation, drawn to those interactions where their cultural capital gives them the best emotional energy payoff. Thinking, too, can be explained by the internalization of conversations within the flow of situations; individual selves are thoroughly and continually social, constructed from the outside in. The first half of Interaction Ritual Chains is based on the classic analyses of Durkheim, Mead, and Goffman and draws on micro-sociological research on conversation, bodily rhythms, emotions, and intellectual creativity. The second half discusses how such activities as sex, smoking, and social stratification are shaped by interaction ritual chains. For example, the book addresses the emotional and symbolic nature of sexual exchanges of all sorts--from hand-holding to masturbation to sexual relationships with prostitutes--while describing the interaction rituals they involve. This book will appeal not only to psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists, but to those in fields as diverse as human sexuality, religious studies, and literary theory.

Sociological Insight

1982
Sociological Insight

PDF Sociological Insight Download

  • Author: Randall Collins
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 192

This concise and lucid supplementary text guides students through discussions of reason, religion, power, crime, and love, demonstrating that sociology offers striking and "nonobvious" insights that deepen our understanding of society. By highlighting unusual and unexpected conclusions this lively book dramatizes the significance of sociological analysis for those new to its study.

Lower Ed

2017-02-28
Lower Ed

PDF Lower Ed Download

  • Author: Tressie McMillan Cottom
  • Publisher: New Press, The
  • ISBN: 162097102X
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 241

More than two million students are enrolled in for-profit colleges, from the small family-run operations to the behemoths brandished on billboards, subway ads, and late-night commercials. These schools have been around just as long as their bucolic not-for-profit counterparts, yet shockingly little is known about why they have expanded so rapidly in recent years—during the so-called Wall Street era of for-profit colleges. In Lower Ed Tressie McMillan Cottom—a bold and rising public scholar, herself once a recruiter at two for-profit colleges—expertly parses the fraught dynamics of this big-money industry to show precisely how it is part and parcel of the growing inequality plaguing the country today. McMillan Cottom discloses the shrewd recruitment and marketing strategies that these schools deploy and explains how, despite the well-documented predatory practices of some and the campus closings of others, ending for-profit colleges won't end the vulnerabilities that made them the fastest growing sector of higher education at the turn of the twenty-first century. And she doesn't stop there. With sharp insight and deliberate acumen, McMillan Cottom delivers a comprehensive view of postsecondary for-profit education by illuminating the experiences of the everyday people behind the shareholder earnings, congressional battles, and student debt disasters. The relatable human stories in Lower Ed—from mothers struggling to pay for beauty school to working class guys seeking "good jobs" to accomplished professionals pursuing doctoral degrees—illustrate that the growth of for-profit colleges is inextricably linked to larger questions of race, gender, work, and the promise of opportunity in America. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews with students, employees, executives, and activists, Lower Ed tells the story of the benefits, pitfalls, and real costs of a for-profit education. It is a story about broken social contracts; about education transforming from a public interest to a private gain; and about all Americans and the challenges we face in our divided, unequal society.

The 100 Society

2014-09-04
The 100 Society

PDF The 100 Society Download

  • Author: Carla Spradbery
  • Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
  • ISBN: 144492009X
  • Category : Juvenile Fiction
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 229

For sixth-form student Grace Becker, The 100 Society is more than just a game; it's an obsession. Having convinced her five friends at Clifton Academy to see it through to the end, Grace will stop at nothing to carry out the rules of the game: tagging 100 locations around the city. With each step closer to the 100-mark they get, the higher the stakes become. But when the group catches the attention of a menacing stalker - the Reaper - he seems intent on exposing their illegal game, tormenting Grace with anonymous threats and branding their dormitory doors with his ominous tag. As the once tight-knit group slowly unravels, torn apart by doubt and the death of a student, they no longer know who to trust. With time running out, Grace must unmask the Reaper before he destroys everything she cares about for ever... With its mix of horror and mystery The 100 Society is perfect for fans of Point Horror and James Dawson. 'A pleasingly dark teen thriller with fun, fresh characters. Spradbery is a debut author to watch.' James Dawson

The Discovery of Society

2009
The Discovery of Society

PDF The Discovery of Society Download

  • Author: Randall Collins
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill Higher Education
  • ISBN: 0077395492
  • Category :
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 290

This classic text explores the lives and ideas of the social thinkers who have shaped and continue to forge traditions in sociology. Focusing on the great names in the field, it weaves biographical and conceptual details into a tapestry of the history of social thought of the 19th and 20th centuries. Written in a narrative style that is accessible and exciting, this text serves as an excellent supplement for courses in social and sociological theory, the history of social thought, the history of sociology, and introduction to sociology.

The Schooled Society

2014-07-23
The Schooled Society

PDF The Schooled Society Download

  • Author: David P Baker
  • Publisher: Stanford University Press
  • ISBN: 0804790485
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 361

“Path-breaking . . . offers a rich, encompassing, global perspective on education . . . articulates an educationally-grounded vision of contemporary society.” —David John Frank, University of California, Irvine Only 150 years ago, the majority of the world’s population was largely illiterate. Today, not only do most people over fifteen have basic reading and writing skills, but 20 percent of the population attends some form of higher education. What are the effects of such radical, large-scale change? David Baker argues that the education revolution has transformed our world into a schooled society—that is, a society that is actively created and defined by education. Drawing on neo-institutionalism, The Schooled Society shows how mass education interjects itself and its ideologies into culture at large: from the dynamics of social mobility, to how we measure intelligence, to the values we promote. The proposition that education is a primary rather than a “reactive” institution is then tested by examining the degree to which education has influenced other large-scale social forces, such as the economy, politics, and religion. Rich, groundbreaking, and globally-oriented, The Schooled Society sheds light on how mass education has dramatically altered the face of society and human life. “One of the most important books in the sociology of education in quite some time. . . . It will solidify [Baker’s] reputation as one of today’s leading sociologists of education and comparative and international education.” —Alan R. Sadovnik, Rutgers University “David Baker explores formal education as a social-cultural force in its own right. . . . The Schooled Society offers a powerful alternative perspective on the global educational revolution.” —Maria Charles, University of California, Santa Barbara

Disciplined Minds

2000
Disciplined Minds

PDF Disciplined Minds Download

  • Author: Jeff Schmidt
  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
  • ISBN: 9780742516854
  • Category : Business & Economics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 308

In this book about the world of professional work, Jeff Schmidt demonstrates that the workplace is inherently political and is a battleground for the very identity of the individual, as is graduate school where professionals are trained.

LGBTQ Social Movements

2018-01-16
LGBTQ Social Movements

PDF LGBTQ Social Movements Download

  • Author: Lisa M. Stulberg
  • Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
  • ISBN: 1509527400
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 210

In recent years, there has been substantial progress on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights in the United States. We are now, though, in a time of incredible political uncertainty for queer people. LGBTQ Social Movements provides an accessible introduction to mainstream LGBTQ movements in the US, illustrating the many forms that LGBTQ activism has taken since the mid-twentieth century. Covering a range of topics, including the Stonewall uprising and gay liberation, AIDS politics, queer activism, marriage equality fights, youth action, and bisexual and transgender justice, Lisa M. Stulberg explores how marginalized people and communities have used a wide range of political and cultural tools to demand and create change. The five key themes that guide the book are assimilationism and liberationism as complex strategies for equality, the limits and possibilities of legal change, the role of art and popular culture in social change, the interconnectedness of social movements, and the role of privilege in movement organizing. This book is an important tool for understanding current LGBTQ politics and will be essential reading for students and scholars of sexuality, LGBTQ studies, and social movements, as well as anyone new to thinking about these issues.