Political science can gain from incorporating richer conceptions of social relations into its analyses. In place of atomistic entities endowed with assets but few social relationships, social actors should be seen as relational entities embedded in social and cultural structures that connect them to others in multifaceted ways. Understanding those relationships requires a deeper understanding o...

abstractin this article, iranian society in the 80s is analyzed in terms of its prevailing insights using the theory of reflection in the sociology of cinema. this theory, which considers art as a mirror for society, permits researcher to study the predominant perceptions of the period under investigation. this is done through assessment of the image of hero shown in its cinema. moreover, the g...

This paper explicates a critical theory of moral panic, arguing that there is an afŽ nity to be discerned between the sociology of moral panic and the sociology of moral regulation. It is demonstrated how efforts to distance sociological investigations of moral regulation from studies of moral panic have been founded on a narrow treatment of the ways in which the latter have conceptualized pani...

I begin this paper with summaries of environment and development perspectives foundational to contemporary environmental sociology: ecological modernization theory and treadmill of production theory. Descriptions of the perspectives are provided as well as an overview of recent quantitative cross-national analyses that evaluate the propositions of both theories. Next, I provide a summary of eco...

My thesis in sociology takes place in a big research program studying contaminated storm water in urban areas in order to develop new processes to cope with pollution. Most of the researchers of the program are biologists, chemists, hydrologists. The study also conveys sociology insisting on the importance of a multidisciplinary approach. Why would a sociologist be needed to help understand a t...

Gabriel Vélez-Cuartas (PhD in Social & Political Sciences) is an Associate professor of sociology and Director of the Research Center in Social Science and Humanities at the University of Antioquia in Colombia. He belongs to the research group Social Networks & Actors subscribed to National System of Science Technology & Innovation in Colombia. He has worked in collaboration with the team of th...

Since its inception in the work of the classical social theorists, the sociology of knowledge—or as some would prefer, of belief—has generated an extensive array of debates about relativism. A central question has been whether the very existence of social determinants for beliefs makes it impossible to regard them as true or rational in any absolute sense, and this has proved especially content...

This article analyses the recent resurgence of political analysis within international development. It argues that although new conceptual approaches have brought valuable insights concerning the links between popular agency, institutional politics and development possibilities, several problems remain. These include a tendency either to overlook or to under-theorise some important linkages bet...