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'The New Blackwell Companion to Social Theory' brings together leading scholars from around the world to provide the first truly international overview of the major developments in 20th-century Western social thought.

This edited volume offers a collection of papers that present a comparative analysis of the development of Shari'a in countries with Muslim minorities, such as America, Australia, Germany, and Italy, as well as countries with Muslim majorities, such as Malaysia, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Tunisia.The Sociology of Shari'a provides a global analysis of these important legal transformations and analyzesthe topic from a sociological perspective. It explores examples of non-Western countries that have a Muslim minority in their populations, including South Africa, China, Singapore, and the Philippines.In addition, the third part of the book includes case studies that explore some ground-breaking theories on the sociology of Shari'a, such as the application of Black, Chambliss, and Eisenstein's sociological perspectives.  

‘Regimes of Happiness’ is a comparative and historical analysis of how human societies have articulated and enacted distinctive notions of human fulfillment, determining divergent moral, ethical and religious traditions and incommensurate and conflicting understanding of the meaning of the ‘good life’.

\"Legal pluralism has often been associated with post-colonial legal developments especially where common law survived alongside tribal and customary laws. Focusing on Sharهi{u2018}a, this book examines the legal policies and experiences of various societies with different traditions of citizenship, secularism and common law. Where large diasporic communities of migrants develop, there will be some demand for the institutionalization of Sharهi{u2018}a at least in the resolution of domestic disputes. This book tests the limits of multiculturalism by exploring the issue that any recognition of cultural differences might imply similar recognition of legal differences. It also explores the debate about post-secular societies specifically to the presentation and justification of beliefs and institutions by both religious and secular citizens\"--Page [i].

Taking a critical approach to the concept of 'religious pluralism', this book examines the dynamics of religious co-existence in Asia as they are directly addressed by governments, or indirectly managed by groups and individuals. It looks at the quality of relations that emerge in encounters among people of different religious traditions or among people who hold different visions within the same tradition. Chapters focus in particular on the places of everyday religious diversity in Asian societies in order to explore how religious groups have confronted new situations of religious diversity. The book goes on to explore the conditions under which active religious pluralism emerges (or not) from material contexts of diversity.

Taking a thematic approach, Bryan S. Turner draws together his writings which explore the relationship between Islam and the ideas of Western social thinkers. Turner engages with the broad categories of capitalism, orientalism, modernity, gender, and citizenship among others, as he examines how Muslims adapt to changing times and how Islam has come to be managed by those in power.

In the last three decades, the human body has gained increasing prominence in contemporary political debates, and it has become a central topic of modern social sciences and humanities. Modern technologies – such as organ transplants, stem-cell research, nanotechnology, cosmetic surgery and cryonics – have changed how we think about the body. In this collection of thirty original essays by leading figures in the field, these issues are explored across a number of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, including pragmatism, feminism, queer theory, post-modernism, post-humanism, cultural sociology, philosophy and anthropology. A wide range of case studies, which include cosmetics, diet, organ transplants, racial bodies, masculinity and sexuality, eating disorders, religion and the sacred body, and disability, are used to appraise these different perspectives. In addition, this Handbook explores various epistemological approaches to the basic question: what is a body? It also offers a strongly themed range of chapters on empirical topics that are organized around religion, medicine, gender, technology and consumption. It also contributes to the debate over the globalization of the body: how have military technology, modern medicine, sport and consumption led to this contemporary obsession with matters corporeal? The Handbook ’s clear, direct style will appeal to a wide undergraduate audience in the social sciences, particularly for those studying medical sociology, gender studies, sports studies, disability studies, social gerontology, or the sociology of religion. It will serve to consolidate the new field of body studies. Introduction: the Turn of the Body by Bryan S. Turner . Body, self and society. 1. Simone de Beauvoir and Binaries of the Body by Mary Evans 2. Pragmatism’s Embodied Philosophy: From Immediate Experience to Somaesthetics by Richard Shusterman 3. Norbert Elias and the Body by Mike Atkinson 4. Embodied Practice: Martin Heidegger, Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault by Bryan S. Turner 5. My Multiple Sick Bodies: Symbolic Interactionism, Autoethnography and Embodiment by Ken Plummer 6. Feminist theory: Bodies, Science and Technology by Patricia Ticineto Clough 7. Foucault’s Body by Nikki Sullivan . What is a body?. 8. Layers or Versions? Human Bodies and the Love of Bitterness by Annemarie Mol 9. Phenomenology and the Body by Nick Crossley 10. Social Constructionism and the Body by Darin Weinberg 11. From Embodied Regulations to Hybrid Ontologies: Questioning Archaeological Bodies by Stratos Nanoglou 12. Social Brains, Embodiment and Neuro-Interactionism by Victoria Pitts-Taylor . Religion and the body. 13. Relics of Faith: Fleshly Desires, Ascetic Disciplines and Devotional Affect in the Transnational Sathya Sai Movement by Tulasi Srinivas 14. The Body and the Veil by Sonja van Wichelen 15. Recomposing Decimated Bodies by Nurit Stadler . Medical regimes and the body. 16. Death Signals Life: A Semiotics of the Corpse by Lianna Hart and Stefan Timmermans 17. Beyond the Anorexic Paradigm: Re-Thinking ‘Eating’ Disorders by Susan Bordo 18. Disability, Impairment and the Body by Christopher Faircloth 19. The Body, Social Inequality and Health by Kevin White 20. Health and the Embodiment of the Life Course by Jenny Hockey and Allison James . Gender, Sexualities and Race. 21. Chinese Male Bodies: A Transnational Study of Masculinity and Sexuality by Travis S.K. Kong 22. Male Bodies, Masculine Bodies, Men’s Bodies: The Need for a Concept of Gex by Jeff Hearn 23. Racialized Bodies by Maxine Leeds Craig . Technologies and body modification. 24. Getting Work Done: Cosmetic Surgery as Constraint, as Commodity, as Commonplace by Heather Laine Talley 25. Modified Bodies: Texts, Projects and Process by Paul Sweetman 26. Questions of Life and Death: A Genealogy by Tiago Moreira and Paolo Palladino 27. Rejecting the Aging Body by Alex Dumas 28. Conclusion: The Varieties of My Body: Pain, Ethics and Illusio by Arthur W. Frank Bryan S. Turner is the Presidential Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, the City University of New York USA and the Professor of Social and Political Thought at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. His publications include The Body & Society (Sage, 2008) and he edited The Routledge Handbook of Globalization Studies (2010).

The Handbook of the Sociology of Medical Education provides a contemporary introduction to this classic area of sociology by examining the social origin and implications of the epistemological, organizational and demographic challenges facing medical education in the twenty-first century. Beginning with reflections on the historical and theoretical foundations of the sociology of medical education, the collection then focuses on current issues affecting medical students, the profession and the faculty, before exploring medical education in different national contexts. Leading sociologists analyze: the intersection of medical education and social structures such as gender, ethnicity and disability; the effect of changes in medical practice, such as the emergence of evidence-based medicine, on medical education; and the ongoing debates surrounding the form and content of medical curricula. By examining applied problems within a framework which draws from social theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu, this new collection suggests future directions for the sociological study of medical education and for medical education itself.

A comprehensive new collection covering the principal traditions and critical contemporary issues of social theory. * Builds on the success of The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory, second edition with substantial revisions, entirely new contributions, and a fresh editorial direction * Explores contemporary areas such as actor network theory, social constructionism, human rights and cosmopolitanism * Includes chapters on demography, science and technology studies, and genetics and social theory * Emphasizes key areas of sociology which have had an important impact in shaping the discipline as a whole