No national tradition of social theory has been more seductive to Anglo- American readers than the French.There has been a long-standing fascination with French ideas and debates. This ...extraordinarily accomplished book, written by one of Britain?s leading commentators on social theory, provides a peerless account of the French tradition.The book: provides a systematic account of French social theory from the aftermath of the French Revolution (St Simon, Bazard and Comte) to the contemporary scene dominated by Kristeva, Deleuze, Bourdieu and Baudrillard; divides French social theory into three logically coherent cycles: 1800-80 (positivist); 1880-1940 (anthropological); 1940-2000 (Marxist); provides a detailed guide to the three phases of postwar French social theory - existential, structural and post-structural; and situates the discussions of individuals and schools in the relevant social and political contexts. The book is a masterpiece of erudition and scholarship but is written throughout in an engaging and informative style. It will be required reading for anyone interested in social theory and sociology.
In this outstanding collection, Mike Gane brings together a selection of key articles on Durkheim and Mauss showing their points of convergence and divergence. Included here are Mauss's 'A ...sociological assessment of Bolshevism 1924-5' and his 'Letters on Communism, Fascism and Nazism'. This is an engrossing book not only for scholars and students of Durkheim and Mauss but for anyone interested in radical social theory.
Jean Baudrillard arouses strong opinions. In this collection of his most important interviews the reader gains a unique and accessible overview of Baudrillard's key ideas. The collection includes ...many interviews that appear in English for the first time as well as a fascinating interview and encounter between the editor and Baudrillard in Paris.
Auguste Comte is widely acknowledged as the founder of the science of sociology and the 'Religion of Humanity'. In this fascinating study, the first major reassessment of Comte’s sociology for many ...years, Mike Gane draws on recent scholarship and presents a new reading of this remarkable figure. Comte’s contributions to the history and philosophy of science have decisively influenced positive methodologies. He coined the term ‘sociology’ and gave it its first content, and he is renowned for having introduced the sociology of gender and emotion into sociology. What is less well known however, is that Comte contributed to ethics, and indeed coined the word ‘altruism’. In this important work Gane examines Comte's sociological vision and shows that, because he thought sociology could and should be reflexive, encyclopaedic and utopian, he considered topics such as fetishism, polytheism, fate, love, and the relations between sociology, science, theology and culture. This fascinating account of the birth of sociology is an unprecedented introductory text on Comte. Gane’s work is an essential read for all sociologists and students of the discipline.
This major collection brings Foucault's later work into sharp focus and illustrates some of the ways in which it is informing developments in the social sciences. Concise, clear and wide-ranging it ...provides an essential accessory to the understanding one of the key thinkers in the twentieth century.
Mike Gane provides an introduction to Baudrillard's cultural theory: the conception of modernity and the complex process of simulation. He examines Baudrillard's literary essays: his confrontation ...with Calvino, Styron, Ballard and Borges. Gane offers a coherent account of Baudrillard's theory of cultural ambience, and the culture of consumer society. And it provides an introduction to Baudrillard's fiction theory, and the analysis of transpolitical figures. The book also includes an interesting and provocative comparison of Baudrillard's powerful essay against the modernist Pompidou Centre in Paris and Frederic Jameson's analysis of the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. An interpretation of this encounter leads to the presentation of a very different Baudrillard from that which figures in contemporary debates on postmodernism.
Sustained yield, as a working principle for forest managers, needs to be superseded by a wider concept of sustainability, applied over the forest sector as a whole. This may conveniently be called ...'sustainable forestry'. The practical implications of adopting this concept were addressed by asking 'what is to be sustained' and 'how can sustainability be achieved'? These questions were investigated with the aid of a simple model, which was set up and run on a microcomputer, using the TIMPLAN modelling system designed for forest sector planning. The model was used to try out five management alternatives and reveal their consequences. It was demonstrated that sustained yield does not produce sustainable forestry. The achievement of sustainable forestry depends on working out, step by step, a satisfactory strategy for development of the forest sector, as part of the forest sector policy and planning process. In practice, because of the complexity of the temporal and spatial interactions which are a feature of the sector, this is impracticable without the use of a modelling system. En tant que principe de travail des gérants forestiers, le rendement soutenu doit être supplanté par un concept plus large de supportabilité appliqué au secteur forestier considéré comme un tout. On pourrait judicieusement appeler ceci 'Sylviculture supportable'. Les implications pratiques entraînées par l'adoption de ce concept ont été étudiées en se posant les questions 'Que doit on supporter' et 'Comment atteindre cette supportabilité'. Ces questions ont été investigées grâce à un modèle simple, installé et fonctionnant sur un micro-ordinateur, en utilisant le système de modélisation TIMPLAN destiné à la planification du secteur forestier. Le modèle a permis d'essayer cinq alternatives de gestion et de révéler leurs conséquences. Il est démontré qu'un rendement soutenu ne génère pas une sylviculture supportable. L'accomplissement d'une sylviculture supportable dépend de l'élaboration, pas à pas, d'une stratégie suffisante au développment du secteur forestier. En pratique, ceci est impossible sans l'emploi d'un système de modélisation, en raison de la complexité des interactions spatiales et temporelles caractérisants ce secteur. Es necesario reemplazar Producción Sostenida como el principio director del trabajo de los administradores forestales por el concepto mas amplio de Sostenabilidad que puede ser empleado al sector forestal en su totalidad. Se aplicó a las consecuencias práticas de adoptar este concepto a través de las preguntas siguientes: ¿Que es lo que se va a sostener? y ¿Cómo lograr la Sostenabilidad? Estas preguntas fueron investigadas a través de un modelo sencillo que requiere el uso de una microcomputadora y la sistema modelada TIMPLAN, diseñada específicamente para la plannificación del sector forestal. El modelo fue usado para someter a prueba cinco alternativas administrativas y revelar sus consecuencias. Fue demostrado efectivamente que la Producción Sostenida no resulta en la Silvicultura Sostenible. La realización efectiva de Silvicultura Sostenible depiende de la elaboración, paso a paso, de una estrategia adecuada para el desarrollo del sector forestal como parte del proceso de planificación. Sin embargo, en la práctica, por causa de la complejidad de las interacciones temporales y espaciales que son características del sector, es impracticable sin el uso de una sistema modelado.
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