The Blackwell Companion to Major Contemporary Social Theorists is a survey of contemporary social theory that focuses on the thinkers themselves. In original essays especially commissioned for this volume, leading experts and practitioners examine the life and work of 13 major theorists such as Elias, Baudrillard, Giddens, and Butler.

    * Includes 13 original essays by leading scholars on major contemporary social theorists.
    * Covers key figures such as Elias, Goffman, Foucault, Habermas, Giddens, Bourdieu, and Butler.
    * Essays include biographical sketches, the social and intellectual context, and the impact of the thinker's work on social theory generally.
    * Includes bibliographies of the theorist's most important works as well as key secondary works.
    * Can be used in conjunction with The Blackwell Companion to Major Classical Social Theorists, edited by George Ritzer, for a complete reference source in social theory.

This provocative combination of original poetry, prose, criticism, and visual art documents the continuing growth of literature by and about Chicanas. Through innovative use of language and images, the artists represented here explore female sexuality, economic and social injustice, gender roles, and the contributions of critical theory.

In this innovative book, Dr. Ray Laurence looks at the archaeological and literary evidence relating to the city of Pompeii from the viewpoint of architect, geographer and social scientist.

Language and Social Contexts: explores how social contexts affect language use, enabling students to see how context has a direct effect on how texts are written, read and understood. Key Features: covers the key skills and topics, including the importance of social contexts, transcripts and live data, representation, power, gender and regional dialect analyses a wide variety of spoken and written texts, from conversations and text messages to wedding invitations, road signs, police warnings and advertisements offers a step-by-step guide to approaching texts and data and suggestions for structuring a response can be used as both a course text and a revision tool.

The words people use in their daily lives can reveal important aspects of their social and psychological worlds. With advances in computer technology, text analysis allows researchers to reliably and quickly assess features of what people say as well as subtleties in their linguistic styles. Following a brief review of several text analysis programs, we summarize some of the evidence that links natural word use to personality, social and situational fluctuations, and psychological interventions.