Culture and power are among the most passionately argued concepts and ideas in the field of social sciences. In this book the relation between culture and power is examined through the concept of symbolic power. The essays in this multifaceted book examine the past and present forms of symbolic power in different geographical contexts, institutions and fields of social action.
The book is organized into four major parts. The first part, Symbolic (Mis)representations of Reality, focuses on the concept of symbolic power, classification as a strategy of symbolic manipulation, the authority of first person narration, and the emergence of the âprecariatâ in metropolises. The second part, Transforming State, Education and Childhood, deals with the profound changes in the European welfare state and its relation to childhood, and educational systems. The third part, Cultures and Agency in Changing Contexts, sheds light on the minority language issues in Europe, the position of young female immigrants in Israeli religious schools, the prevailing Chinese culture that prefers sons to daughters, the Finnish fashion industry in a global squeeze, and Australian sense of dwelling place and habitus. The final part, Emerging Identities of Intellectuals in Globalizing World, examines the nature and characteristics of intellectuals in India, the meeting of the Occident and the Orient in Tangier at the beginning of the 20th century, and the potential significance of the highly educated diaspora for socio-economic development.
The writers are internationally renowned social scientists from three continents. Editors Jarmo Houtsonen and Ari Antikainen work at the Department of Sociology at the University of Joensuu in Finland.
This book is dedicated to professor Mâhammed Sabour.
Educational transformations are always the result and the symptom of the social transformations in terms of which they are to be explained. -Emile Durkheim 1969-
Interpretation is the key to understanding ourselves and who we are. It challenges us to work out what Australia means, as a continent and as a nation. Interpretation makes sense of life, of systems and structures. -Interpretation Australia Association-
Tanger, ville multiculturelle, Ville plurielle, Espace de convivialite, Croisement des âRoutes du Mondeâ, Lieu de âRencontre des Culturesâ, Montre la voie de la paix, Vers âMonde plus uniâ. -Rachid Tafersiti-