A nation is a type of social organization where a collective identity,a national identity,has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population,such as language,history,ethnicity,culture,territory or society. Some nations are constructed around ethnicity while others are bound by political constitutions.
Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs,practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. This objective investigation may include the use both of quantitative methods and of qualitative approaches.
Modernity,a topic in the humanities and social sciences,is both a historical period and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms,attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissance—in the Age of Reason of 17th-century thought and the 18th-century Enlightenment. Commentators variously consider the era of modernity to have ended by 1930,with World War II in 1945,or as late as the period falling between the 1980s and 1990s;the following era is often referred to as "postmodernity". The term "contemporary history" is also used to refer to the post-1945 timeframe,without assigning it to either the modern or postmodern era.
Peter Ludwig Berger was an Austrian-born American sociologist and Protestant theologian. Berger became known for his work in the sociology of knowledge,the sociology of religion,study of modernization,and theoretical contributions to sociological theory.
Werner Sombart was a German economist,historian and sociologist. Head of the "Youngest Historical School," he was one of the leading Continental European social scientists during the first quarter of the 20th century. The term late capitalism is accredited to him. The concept of creative destruction associated with capitalism is also of his coinage. His magnum opus was Der moderne Kapitalismus. It was published in three volumes from 1902 through 1927. In Kapitalismus he described four stages in the development of capitalism from its earliest iteration as it evolved out of feudalism,which he called proto-capitalism to early,high and,finally,late capitalism —Spätkapitalismus—in the post World War I period.
An imagined community is a concept developed by Benedict Anderson in his 1983 book Imagined Communities to analyze nationalism. Anderson depicts a nation as a socially-constructed community,imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of a group.
Collective consciousness,collective conscience,or collective conscious is the set of shared beliefs,ideas,and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society. In general,it does not refer to the specifically moral conscience,but to a shared understanding of social norms.
Nihonjinron is a genre of historical and literary work that focuses on issues of Japanese national and cultural identity.
Sociology as a scholarly discipline emerged,primarily out of Enlightenment thought,as a positivist science of society shortly after the French Revolution. Its genesis owed to various key movements in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of knowledge,arising in reaction to such issues as modernity,capitalism,urbanization,rationalization,secularization,colonization and imperialism.
National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole,as represented by distinctive traditions,culture,and language".
Scott Lash is a professor of sociology and cultural studies at Goldsmiths,University of London. Lash obtained a BSc in Psychology from the University of Michigan,an MA in Sociology from Northwestern University,and a PhD from the London School of Economics (1980). Lash began his teaching career as a lecturer at Lancaster University and became a professor in 1993. He moved to London in 1998 to take up his present post as Director for the Centre for Cultural Studies and Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College.
Cultural nationalism is a term used by scholars of nationalism to describe efforts among intellectuals to promote the formation of national communities through emphasis on a common culture. It is contrasted with "political" nationalism,which refers to specific movements for national self-determination through the establishment of a nation-state.
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural,political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism,focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. The field started to emerge in the 1960s,as scholars from previously colonized countries began publishing on the lingering effects of colonialism,developing a critical theory analysis of the history,culture,literature,and discourse of imperial power.
John Lie is professor of sociology at the University of California,Berkeley. His principal academic interests are social theory,political economy,social identity,and East Asia.
Eva Illouz is a professor of sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. She was the first woman president of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.
Bildungsbürgertum is a social class that emerged in mid-18th-century Germany,as the educated social stratum of the bourgeoisie,men and women who had received an education based upon the metaphysical values of idealism and classical studies of the Graeco–Roman culture of Antiquity. In sociological contrast to the Kleinbürgertum,the petite bourgeoisie of Germany,the Bildungsbürgertum were the intelligentsia and the upper economic-stratum of the German bourgeoisie.
A critical theory is any approach to humanities and social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to attempt to reveal,critique,and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism,it argues that social problems stem more from social structures and cultural assumptions than from individuals. Some hold it to be an ideology,others argue that ideology is the principal obstacle to human liberation. Critical theory finds applications in various fields of study,including psychoanalysis,film theory,literary theory,cultural studies,history,communication theory,philosophy,and feminist theory.
The Black Atlantic:Modernity and Double Consciousness is a 1993 history book about a distinct black Atlantic culture that incorporated elements from African,American,British,and Caribbean cultures. It was written by Paul Gilroy and was published by Harvard University Press and Verso Books.
Several scholars of nationalism support the existence of nationalism in the Middle Ages. This school of thought differs from modernism,the predominant school of thought on nationalism,which suggests that nationalism developed largely after the late 18th century and the French Revolution. Theories on the existence of nationalism in the Middle Ages may belong to the general paradigms of ethnosymbolism and primordialism (perennialism).
Modernization theory is the predominant explanation for the emergence of nationalism among scholars of nationalism. Prominent modernization scholars,such as Benedict Anderson,Ernest Gellner and Eric Hobsbawn,say nationalism arose with modernization during the late 18th century. Processes that lead to the emergence of nationalism include industrialization and democratic revolutions.
