I began this interview and wrote the interview questions making certain assumptions, blindly, without considering the context of the questions I was asking and the results I was looking for.  This wasn’t just an interview like the others I had conducted in the past for www.radiocasbah.com, where I engaged in an informal conversation with a… Read More


Pierre Bourdieu’s desire to create a union of opposites, of the subjectivist and objectivist approaches in sociology, became what he called habitus.  This is his attempt to overcome the dualism in what he saw as a problem in sociological theory.  However, this attempt to generalize two opposing forces does not account for any individual’s desire… Read More


Herbert Marcuse of the Frankfurt school analysed contemporary society using key elements of Sigmund Freud’s theories filtered through the classical social theory of Karl Marx as a jumping off point.  However, he turned that on its head into three areas:  the decline of the individual, the deranged logic of capitalism, and a promise of liberation. … Read More


Max Weber’s study of history, economics, and law allowed him to analyse social movements in their microcosm, especially his views of Rationalisation.  Critics have argued that Weber viewed rationalization as progress, while, I would counter that Weber described it as a modern reality, much as Machievelli described power and the state in The Prince.  Weber’s… Read More


In chapters 8-10 of The Price of Inequality, Stigitz concentrates on the battle of the federal budget, monetary policy, and fixing what is described throughout the text as woefully desperate and dire.  He addresses many varied points and somehow misses a few others that some would deem obvious such as what some would describe as… Read More


Anthony Giddens, in Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, reintroduces us to the first self-described sociologist, Emile Durkheim.  Giddens, analyses the three areas of importance that Durheim fixated on:  1) He worked to establish sociology as an academic discipline in order to advance his belief that sociology has value and that it should be studied, 2)… Read More


In chapters 4-7 of The Price of Inequality, Stigitz concentrates on the importance of inequality, the fragility of democracy, influence and propaganda, and the rule of law.  Here, he continues to utilize sweeping generalities but fails to analyze those generalities in detail.  In fact, he uses some of the same tactics that have been used… Read More


Anthony Giddens, in Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, discusses the development and evolution of Karl Marx from a youth to a theorist with Marx analyzing his own time and specific epochs in history to determine what he later determined to be patterns of economic development towards capitalism.  Marx’s focus was on three subjects:  1. His… Read More


In The Price of Inequality, Joseph Stiglitz focuses primarily on the economic and the political, on why the US economic system is failing, rather than other factors that may contribute to inequality.  Although he admits to sweeping generalities, his analysis of inequality is probing.  His explanation of grievances could be used to explain how a… Read More


Bryman, A. (2008). Social Research Methods (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA. Some of you may or may not be interested in this, but this was essentially my crash course/note taking in sociology methods.  I keep it here for future reference.  I may or may not modify it or add to it.… Read More