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Books in Arts and humanities

Elsevier's Arts and Humanities titles encompass a rich spectrum of scholarship that explores human culture, history, philosophy, and creative expression. These works offer deep insights into language, literature, visual arts, and critical theory, supporting the academic community in understanding diverse perspectives and cultural legacies. Designed for scholars, educators, and students, this collection bridges classic studies with contemporary issues, fostering a deeper appreciation and knowledge of the human experience.

    • Inequality in American Communities

      • 1st Edition
      • Richard F. Curtis + 1 more
      • Peter H. Rossi
      • English
      Inequality in American Communities is an empirical study of inequality in U.S. communities and its impact on individual Americans. The data for this study come from sample surveys in six American cities differing in size and region. In each survey, male heads of households were asked about attributes that ranked them in the system of inequality and about a variety of attitudes and behaviors that might be affected by their ranks. The analyses seek to determine how social rank affects various attitudes and behaviors and compare these effects from community to community. Comprised of 12 chapters, this book begins with an overview of theoretical assumptions about community stratification, with particular reference to how a person's life is shaped by his position in a local structure of inequality. The discussion then turns to patterns of social stratification in six cities: Columbus (Ohio), Linton and Indianapolis (Indiana), and Yuma, Safford, and Phoenix (Arizona). The distributions of various rank variables, such as income and education, in these cities are described, along with the ways in which they are related to form systems of inequality. A basic model of the processes of stratification is also presented. The remaining chapters explore the consequences of social rank and cover topics ranging from social participation and political ideology to anomia and intolerance. This monograph will be of interest to sociologists.
    • Casebook of Organizational Behavior

      • 1st Edition
      • Andrew J. Dubrin
      • English
      Casebook of Organizational Behavior provides a panorama of absorbing, appropriately complex, modern cases from a diversity of work and organizations. The cases chosen are designed to illustrate a wide range of organizational behavior concepts and principles, those ordinarily described and discussed in any comprehensive textbook in organizational behavior. This book is organized into five parts encompassing 44 chapters. It rests upon a foundation of cases about human behavior in organizations drawn from a wide variety of settings. Cases in each chapter are chosen to illustrate concepts that fall under the particular chapter heading, but the classification is not rigid. Each case is accompanied by several questions designed to focus the student's attention upon some of the more important issues raised by the case. After a brief introduction to guidelines for case analysis, this book goes on focusing on individual cases, structured under the general topics of work motivation, the human element in decision making, stresses in managerial and professional life, and political maneuvering in organizations. The next two parts are devoted to cases of small-groups and organizational behavior. Emphasis in small groups is places upon cases that have the most relevance for knowledge workers, including managers, professionals, technical and sales personnel, while in organization behavior focuses on bringing about changes in organizations, yet many of these changes are initiated at the individual and small-group level. This book is of value to college and university undergraduate and masters level courses, and in programs of management development.
    • Family Formation in an Age of Nascent Capitalism

      • 1st Edition
      • David Z. Levine
      • Charles Tilly + 1 more
      • English
      Family Formation in an Age of Nascent Capitalism deals with the impact of early capitalism on the strategies of family formation among four sets of English villagers in the period before the wholesale switch-over to factory industry. This era, roughly speaking from 1550 to 1850, has been variously described as ""traditional,"" ""preindustrial,"" and, more recently, ""protoindustrial."" However, the author sees it as a stage in the transition from feudalism to capitalism—a halfway house. The book begins by placing the study in the context of the larger debate concerning nascent capitalism, early rural industrialization, and the growth of population. Separate chapters then discuss the growth and structure of the framework knitting industry in Shepshed and the social implications of this economic change; the patterns of immigration, population turnover, and generational replacement in Shepshed and Bottesford; and industrial involution and domestic organization in 1851. Subsequent chapters deal with the demographic implications of rural industrialization; the relationship between economic opportunity and family formation; and relationships among the expectation of marriage, bridal pregnancy, and illegitimacy.
    • Sociological Dilemmas

      Toward a Dialectic Paradigm
      • 1st Edition
      • Piotr Sztompka
      • English
      Sociological Dilemmas: Toward a Dialectic Paradigm aims to build a new paradigm in sociological theory by using the method of dialectical critique, patterned on the approach utilized by Karl Marx. The book explores the sociological heritage, with the theoretical works of Karl Marx as the primary basis of exposition and analysis. Chapters are devoted to the discussion of the theoretical crisis of sociology; the division of sociology between two opposing methodologies; dissociation of sociology from the prescientific traditions of social thought; and the conclusion reached by the author after an extensive analysis of sociological theories presented in the book. The book will be of value to sociologists, teachers, and students of the social sciences.
    • Economic Policy Reform in Mexico

      A Case Study for Developing Countries
      • 1st Edition
      • Leopoldo Solís
      • English
      Economic Policy Reform in Mexico: A Case Study for Developing Countries is a five-chapter text about political economy that tries to assess the economic developments in Mexico, especially the attempt at economic reform in the early 1970s. The first chapter examines the period of Stabilizing Development to provide a framework necessary for judging the environment in which the attempts at economic reform were undertaken. This chapter is a piece of applied economics that tries to assess the too frequent attacks against that phase of economic policy. The following three chapters discuss the economic policy objectives of Echeverria's administration, the attempt at tax reform, and the change in the structure and practices of public spending. The final chapter evaluates the experience and draws some inferences about the nature of decision making in economic policy and the constraints faced by a government that wants to use economic policy as an instrument for the promotion of social welfare. This book will prove useful to economists, historians, and researchers.
    • Lifestyle and Social Structure

      Concepts, Definitions, Analyses
      • 1st Edition
      • Michael E. Sobel
      • Peter H. Rossi
      • English
      Lifestyle and Social Structure: Concepts, Definitions, Analyses is devoted the relationship between lifestyle and social structure. The book begins by constructing a meaningful concept of lifestyle in order to understand and model this relationship. The general formulation of the concept hinges on the descriptive word style, defined as ""any distinctive, and therefore recognizable way in which an act is performed or an artifact made or ought to be performed and made."" After developing the implications of the definition, lifestyle is defined, by analogy, as ""any distinctive, and therefore recognizable mode of living."" The notion of social structure is then introduced, arguing that structural differentiation engenders lifestyle differentiation. The remainder of the work is concerned primarily with the modeling of this relationship using data from the 1972-1973 Survey of Consumer Expenditures, and with the concept of stylistic unity. Key topics discussed include the relationship between the theory of lifestyle differentiation and modern economic utility theory; psychographic notions of lifestyle; and the relationships between lifestyle and other key sociological concepts (stratification, alienation). The concept of lifestyle should be of interest to a broad range of applied and theoretical researchers.
    • Social History and Social Policy

      • 1st Edition
      • David J. Rothman + 1 more
      • English
      Social History and Social Policy is a collection of papers that explores the correlation of social history and social policy. Each article in the book are prepared by social historians, preoccupied in the study of the origins and structure of health systems, urban planning, schools, and pension programs, who seek to change the process of social policy formation. The book is divided into three sections. Part I serves as an introduction and provides the history of social institutions. The second part deals with the history of social problems, discussing public employee pension problems; policies on health care; and a few aspects of the history of criminal justice in the United States. The last part provides the uses of history in the making of social policy. The text will be a valuable source of insight for public administrators, politicians, policy makers, political leaders, and analysts.
    • University and Research Library Studies

      Some Contributions from the University of Sheffield Postgraduate School of Librarianship and Information Science
      • 1st Edition
      • W. L. Saunders
      • English
      University and Research Library Studies, Volume 8 presents the growing awareness of the international character of library studies. This book discusses the highly organized approach to library science research in Eastern Europe. Comprised of six chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the advantages of the comparative study of the libraries of various countries, including the possibilities of development and solutions to familiar difficulties. This text then examines the role of the library as a teaching instrument whereby instructions and library assignments are included as an integral part of the normal courses in the curriculum. Other chapters consider the background to the foundation of the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies. This book discusses as well the function of the university library to bring together information and human beings. The final chapter deals with the types of activities that constitute library science research. Librarians will find this book useful.
    • Local Provision of Public Services

      The Tiebout Model After Twenty-Five Years
      • 1st Edition
      • George R. Zodrow
      • English
      Local Provision of Public Services: The Tiebout Model after Twenty-Five Years describes several theoretical and empirical branches of economic research related to Charles Tiebout's provocative hypothesis that consumer mobility and interjurisdictional competition result in an efficient allocation of resources to the local public sector. The book provides insights on the issues being considered in policy debates regarding the appropriate means of providing essential public services. Chapters in the book include an overview of the Tiebout model; income redistribution in a federal system; empirical relationships in the political economy of local public finance; and two conflicting views of the incidence of the property tax. Economists, local government leaders, and experts in public finance will find the book very insightful.