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09/15/2004 Entry: "Sociology On Culture"

Sociology On Culture by John R. Hall, Mary Jo Neitz, and Marshall Battani is getting A LOT of attention ...

from the blurbs: John R. Hall is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of numerous books, including Apocalypse Observed (Routledge) and Cultures of Inquiry. Mary Jo Neitz is Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia and has written widely on issues of gender, religion and culture. Marshall Battani is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Grand Valley State University. The Synopis suggests 'Culture has become a touchstone of interdisciplinary conversation. For readers interested in sociology, the social sciences, and the humanities, this book maps major classical and contemporary analyses and controversies about culture in relation to social processes, everyday life, and axes of ordering and difference such as race, class and gender. Hall, Neitz, and Battani discuss: self and identity; stratification; the Other; the cultural histories of modernity and postmodernity; culture and power; production of culture; the problem of the audience; and action, social movements, and change.' .... Finally, ' Because the sociology of culture has grown so much and cultural studies have proliferated so widely over the past quarter-century, there has been no easy way to obtain an informed introduction to the myriad issues at stake. Now, Sociology on Culture offers a wide-ranging and probing overview of sociological approaches to culture, their major arguments, and their findings. The book's discussions -- of topics ranging from medieval theater to the Internet, across a variety of societies -- are informed by approaches from interpretive sociology and symbolic interactionism, to the Frankfurt school and Foucault'

sounds interesting ...