This collection features books and book contributions written by faculty in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Fairfield University.
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North African Mosaic: A Cultural Reappraisal of Ethnic and Religious Minorities
Nabil Boudraa, Joseph Krause, and David Crawford
David Crawford is a contributing author, "Making Imazighen: Rural Berber Women, Household Organization, and the Production of Free Men", pp 329-346.
Book description: This book’s ambition is to offer the most recent scholarship on North African cultures at a time when the very notion of culture is being re-evaluated in the shifting tides that both associate and divorce the forces of nationalism, globalism and neo-liberalism. Another ambition is to be a readable document about the past and the potential of North African civilizations. Those which have been crystallized into a polysemic voice from centuries of occupations, exchanges and what is now commonly called hybridizations. In this work the collective position of the authors, with their different fields of experience, is that the languages, musics, and the many expressions of common life in North Africa continue to flourish. That they are a bridge between sub-Saharan peoples and Europe. That they are a necessary antidote to the anemic political discourses that have prevailed since decolonization. That they are seminal for the future of the African continent as it begins its true voyage into democracy. It is difficult, at this juncture, to measure the distance that, in the decades to come, will be achieved on that voyage. It is, however, less difficult to evaluate the importance of North Africa on tomorrow’s world. If the past is an indicator, it will be an important force in the cross-flow of trade, ideas and of global destinies.
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The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition
William Darity Jr. and Eric Mielants
Eric Mielants is a contributing author, “Immanuel Wallerstein,” p. 9-11 and “Andre Gunder Frank,” p. 187-188.
Book description: The entirely new International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences covers scholarship and fields that have emerged and matured since the publication of the original international edition. Like its predecessors, the set meets the needs of high school and college students, researchers inside and outside academia, and lay readers in public libraries.
The new set highlights the expanding influence of economics in social science research and features nearly 3,000 entirely new articles and important biographies contributed by thousands of scholars (including several Nobel prize winners) from around the world on a wide array of global topics, including: achievement testing, censorship, personality measurement, aging, income distribution, foreign aid (political and economic aspects), food (world problems, consumption patterns), cultural adaptation, comparative health-care systems, terrorism, political correctness, agricultural innovation, legislation of morality, sexual violence and exploitation, white collar crime.
The new 2nd edition also features biographical profiles of the major contributors to the study of the social sciences, past and present.
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Civil Society: Local and Regional Responses to Global Challenges
Mark Herkenrath, Eric Mielants, and Jeffrey Kentor
Eric Mielants (with Jeffrey Kentor) is a contributing author, "Connecting the Global and Local: The Impact of Globalization on Civil Society: 1990-2000," p. 27-52.
Book description: While contributing to social inequality and environmental degradation, recent global transformations have also strengthened civil society groups opposing these trends. Yet, as they need to transform the existing social order from within, groups struggling for social justice face various strategic dilemmas. The articles in this volume examine these dilemmas and discuss possible solutions. Issues addressed include North-South disparities in what has been called "global civil society", and the precarious division of labor between local grassroots organizers and transnational coalition-builders.
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The Origins of Capitalism and the ‘Rise of the West'
Eric Mielants
Eric Mielants provides a fresh, interdisciplinary interpretation of the origins of modernity in general and of capitalism in particular. He argues that, contrary to established thinking, the "Rise of the West" should not be examined through the lens of the Industrial Revolution or the colonization of the New World but viewed through long-term developments that began in the Middle Ages.
A fascinating overview of civilizations in East Asia, South Asia, and northwestern Africa is provided and then systematically compared to developments in Europe at the same time. Utilizing this analysis, the book addresses some of the most important current debates in world history, comparative sociology, political economy, sociological theory and historical sociology. Mielants uncovers the ways that existing theories (such as Marxism, World-Systems Theory, and Smithian Modernization Theory) have suffered from either Eurocentric or limited temporal and spatial analyses, preventing them from fully explaining the reasons behind the emergence of capitalism in Western Europe.
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Beyond Resistance: The Future of Freedom
Robert Fletcher and David Crawford
David Crawford is a contributing author, "The Temporality of Resistance."
Book description: This thought-provoking book is divided into two parts, each of which contains four chapters. In Part I, titled “Rethinking Resistance,” contributors assert that “resistance” continues to hold utility as both an analytic concept and mode of action in the world, and therefore demands renewed engagement. Part II contains essays that offer novel frames for addressing progressive social change that might serve to replace “resistance” entirely, and thus is entitled “Thinking Beyond.”
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Race, Ethnicity, and Place in a Changing America
John W. Frazier, Eugene L. Tetty-Fio, Thomas D. Boswell, and Terry-Ann Jones
Terry-Ann Jones (with Thomas D. Boswell) is a contributing author, “The Distribution and Socioeconomic Status of West Indians Living in the United States”, pp. 155-180 [Part II, Chapter 13].
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Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America
Ines Miyares, Christopher Airriess, Thomas D. Boswell, and Terry-Ann Jones
Terry-Ann Jones (with Thomas D. Boswell) is a contributing author, "Caribbean Hispanics: Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans”, pp. 123-150.
Book description: Ethnic diversity has marked the United States from its inception. From the migration of the ancestors of Native Americans to the increasingly diverse immigrant populations arriving today, it is impossible to separate ethnicity from an understanding of the United States as a country and "Americans" as a people. At an ever-increasing pace, America today is experiencing watershed changes in its social, cultural, and ethnic/racial geographies. Considering the impact of these transformations, this unique text examines the experiences of a range of ethnic groups in both historical and contemporary context. It begins by laying out a comprehensive conceptual framework that integrates immigration theory; globalization; transnational community formation; and urban, cultural, and economic geography. The contributors then present a rich set of case studies of key ethnic and racial communities—including those of long-standing significance such as Native Americans, African Americans, and Mexican Americans, along with the Latin American and Asian groups that make up the vast majority of newer immigrants. Each case offers a brief historical overview of the group's immigration experience and settlement patterns and discusses its contemporary dynamics. All of these people have transformed—and been transformed by—the places in which they have settled. Exploring these changing communities, places, and landscapes, this book offers a nuanced understanding of the evolution of America's contemporary ethnic geographies.
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Understanding Place: GIS and Mapping Across the Curriculum
Diana S. Sinton, Jennifer J. Lund, Kurt Schlichting, and Joel D. Goldfield
Kurt Schlichting and Joel Goldfield are contributing authors, "GIS and Sociology in Foreign Language Learning,”
Book description: Understanding Place is a reference for teachers who wish to deepen student involvement by using GIS technology to analyze, and visualize information. Using interactive maps, students in all disciplines have the opportunity to go beyond words to develop the skills and habits of seeing, thinking, and communicating with information-rich images. When students use GIS and mapping as tools to practice inquiry in their fields, they see more, understand more, and engage in a meaningful way with their subjects. Contributors candidly describe GIS-based teaching, learning, and research across the range of a liberal arts and sciences curriculum.
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The Historical Evolution of World-Systems
Christopher Chase-Dunn, E. N. Anderson, and Eric Mielants
Eric Mielants is a contributing author, "The Rise of European Hegemony: The Political Economy of South Asia and Europe Compared, A.D. 1200-A.D. 1500,” p. 122-154.
Book description: In this book leading scholars explore the historical evolution of world systems through examining the ebb and flow of great powers over time, advancing understanding of the regularities in the dynamics of empire and the expansion of political, social and economic interaction networks, from the Bronze Age forward. The authors analyze the expansion and contraction of cross-cultural trade networks and systems of competing and allying political groupings. In premodern times, these ranged from small local trading networks (even the very small ones of hunting-gathering peoples) to the vast Mongol world-system. Within such systems, there is usually one, or a very few, hegemonic powers. How they achieve dominance and how transitions lead to systems change are important topics, particularly at a time when the United States' position is in flux. The chapters in this book review several recent approaches and present a wealth of new findings.
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African American Biographies
Scott Lacy
Scott Lacy is a contributing author of these encyclopedia entries: "Adam Clayton Powell" , "Charles Rangel", "Bill Bojangles Robinson" , "Dred Scott", "Tavis Smiley", "Carl Stokes" , "Billy Strayhorn" , "Art Tatum", "Ivan Van Sertima" , "David Walker" , "Fats Waller" , "JC Watts", "Lenny Wilkens", "Cassandra Wilson" , "Flip Wilson" , "Lester Young", "Robert Johnson", "Scott Joplin", "Wynton Marsalis" , "Curtis Mayfield" , "Thelonius Monk" , "Jelly Roll Morton" , "Charlie Parker", "Ma Rainey", "Otis Redding", "Horace Silver" .
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Nationalism and Minority Identities in Islamic Societies
Maya Shatzmiller and David Crawford
David Crawford is a contributing author, "Royal Interest in Local Culture: The Politics and Potential of Morocco’s Imazighen", pp. 164-194.
Book description: The movement of nation building in Islamic societies away from the secular or Pan-Arab models of the early twentieth century toward a variety of nationalisms was accompanied by growing antagonism between the Muslim majority and ethnic or religious minorities. The papers in Nationalism and Minority Identities in Islamic Societies offer a comparative analysis of how these minorities developed their own distinctive identities within the modern Islamic nation-state. The essays focus on identity formation in five minority groups - Copts in Egypt, Baha'is and Christians in Pakistan, Berbers in Algeria and Morocco, and Kurds in Turkey and Iraq. While every minority community is distinctive, the experiences of these groups show that a state's authoritarian rule, uncompromising attitude towards expressions of particularism, and failure to offer tools for inclusion are all responsible for the politicization and radicalization of minority identities. The place of Islam in this process is complex: while its initial pluralistic role was transformed through the creation of the modern nation-state, the radicalization of society in turn radicalized and politicized minority identities. Minority groups, though at times possessing a measure of political autonomy, remain intensely vulnerable.
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Overcoming the Two Cultures: Science versus the Humanities in the Modern World-System
Richard E. Lee, Immanuel Walllerstein, and Eric Mielants
Eric Mielants is a contributing author, "Reaction and Resistance: The Natural Sciences and the Humanities (1789-1945)," p. 34-54.
Book description: This book tells the story of how the very idea of 'two cultures' - the so-called divorce between science and the humanities - was a creation of the modern world-system that was consolidated in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by the establishment of the faculties and disciplines of the modern university system.
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Encyclopedia of Population
Paul Demeny, Geoffrey McNicoll, and Dennis Hodgson
Dennis Hodgson is a contributing author, "Contemporary Population Thought" pp. 765-772; "Frank Notestein" pp. 696-698; "Warren Thompson" pp. 939-940.
Book description: This successor to Macmillan's International Encyclopedia of Population provides expanded, up-to-date coverage of demographic topics both in the core field and in neighboring disciplines. Designed to encompass the large-scale changes in emphasis and research directions in population studies during the last 20 years, topics covered include: rapid demographic expansion in poor countries, low fertility rates and problems of old-age support, the environmental impact of dense population; the press for expanded reproductive rights; and much more.
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The Modern / Colonial / Capitalist World-System in the Twentieth Century: Global Processes, Antisystemic Movements, and the Geopolitics of Knowledge
Ana Margarita Cervantes-Rodriguez, Ramon Grosfoguel, and Eric Mielants
Eric Mielants is a contributing author, "Mass Migration in the World-System: An Antisystemic Movement in the Long Run?" p. 79-102.
Book description: Examines world-system theory from the perspectives of global processes and antisystemic movements, feminist theory, and the aftermath of the colonial system.
An important building block for further advancing world-system theory, this book considers the theory from the perspectives of global processes and antisystemic movements, feminist theory, and the aftermath of the colonial system. The volume addresses three myths tied to Eurocentric forms of thinking: objectivist and universalist knowledges, the decolonization of the modern world, and developmentalism. All three myths, the authors argue, conceal the continued hierarchical and unequal relations of domination and exploitation between European and Euro-American centers and non-European peripheral regions. In this volume, world-system scholars address these and related aspects of the modern/colonial capitalist world-system.
Addressing the myth of universalist knowledge, the volume reminds us that our knowledge is situated in the gender, class, racial, and sexual hierarchies of a specific region in the world-system, while the coloniality of power additionally situates our knowledge. The volume further argues that the postcolonial era retains the hierarchy of colonialism, and the possibility of national development without global structural changes is one of the greatest 20th-century myths. Taking these perspectives into consideration, the contributors examine and help to refine classic world-system theory.
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International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
N. J. Smelser, James Wright, P. B. Baltes, and Dennis Hodgson
Dennis Hodgson is a contributing author, "Demography: 20th Century History of the Discipline."
Book description: This Encyclopedia is the first attempt in a generation to map the social and behavioral sciences on a grand scale. Not since the publication in 1968 of the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, edited by David L. Sills, has there been such an ambitious project to describe the state of the art in all the fields encompassed within the social and behavioral sciences. It comprises 4,000 articles, commissioned by 52 Section Editors, and includes 90,000 bibliographic references as well as comprehensive name and subject indexes.
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Labour and Labour Markets between Town and Countryside (Middle Ages-19th century)
Bruno Blonde, Eric Vanhaute, and Eric Mielants
Eric Mielants is a contributing author, "The Role of Medieval Cities and the Origins of Merchant Capitalism," p. 111-139.
Book description: This book brings together specialists in economic and social history to explore a series of key mechanisms related to the organisation and interdependence of urban and rural labour markets. Labour and labour markets in and between town and countryside have been puzzling to economic historians for generations. This book brings together specialists in economic and social history to explore a series of key mechanisms related to the organisation and interdependence of urban and rural labour markets. A variety of issues, such as distribution, specialisation, and division of tasks, economies of urbanisation and -(conversely) rural de-localisation, (temporary) mobility of labour and commercial links, organisation of working time, methods of remuneration, gendered specialisation of activities, are dealt with in this book from the viewpoint of (changing) relationships between rural and urban labour markets. The renewed interest of social scientists in this research field is reflected by the diversity of the cases analysed according to geographical, demographic, and economic and political conditions. This book, therefore, provides interesting opportunities for a comparative reading of the significance of labour in the organisation of societies in the course of the centuries that preceded and led up to the 'industrial age' in Western Europe.
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Grand Central Terminal: Railroads, Engineering, and Architecture in New York City
Kurt Schlichting
Winner of the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Award in Architecture from the Association of American Publishers.
In Grand Central Terminal, Kurt C. Schlichting traces the history of this spectacular building, detailing the colorful personalities, bitter conflicts, and Herculean feats of engineering that lie behind its construction. Schlichting begins with Cornelius Vanderbilt—"The Commodore"—whose railroad empire demanded an appropriately palatial passenger terminal in the heart of New York City. Completed in 1871, the first Grand Central was the largest rail facility in the world and yet—cramped and overburdened—soon proved thoroughly inadequate for the needs of this rapidly expanding city. William Wilgus, chief engineer of the New York Central Railroad, conceived of a new Grand Central Terminal, one that would fully meet the needs of the New York Central line. Grand Central became a monument to the creativity and daring of a remarkable age. – Publisher description.
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Fodor’s Morocco
Christine Cipriani and David Crawford
David Crawford is a contributing author, "The High Atlas."
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Population in the Global Arena
James E. Harf, B. Thomas Trout, Dennis Hodgson, Parker G. Marden, and Terry McCoy
Dennis Hodgson is a contributing author, "Population policy," pp. 77- 108 and (with P. Marden and T. McCoy) "The future of population," pp. 109-135.
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Population, Environment, and the Quality of Life
Dennis Hodgson and Parker G. Marden
Dennis Hodgson is a co-editor, with Parker G. Marden.