Political Sociology for a Globalizing World

This accessible book addresses one of the twenty-first century's
most important issues: the increasing lack of connection between
political institutions and the social reality of our everyday
lives. A gulf between popular expectations and formal politics has
widened continually since the revolts against authority of 1968,
the Eastern European revolutions of 1989 and the growth of new
social movements. Today, popular disillusion with politics is
ubiquitous. Enormous social transformations on a global scale since
the 1970s have produced no fundamental change in what are
considered normal political institutions such as the state, or in
mainstream political ideologies and parties.

This book provides tools to understand the apparent irrelevance
of formal political institutions and practices to social life. In
order to enable us to begin to rethink the relations between
politics and society, Michael Drake ably synthesises the new
theoretical developments that social transformations have produced,
including the analysis of power, representation, social identities,
social movements, sovereignty, statehood, globalization,
revolution, risk and security. Ultimately, the book explores the
emergent potentialities and problems of this new politics in a
world of continuous transformation, where the parameters of the
political are continuously shifting.

Auteur
Michael Drake is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Hull

Résumé
This accessible book addresses one of the twenty-first century's most important issues: the increasing lack of connection between political institutions and the social reality of our everyday lives. A gulf between popular expectations and formal politics has widened continually since the revolts against authority of 1968, the Eastern European revolutions of 1989 and the growth of new social movements. Today, popular disillusion with politics is ubiquitous. Enormous social transformations on a global scale since the 1970s have produced no fundamental change in what are considered normal political institutions such as the state, or in mainstream political ideologies and parties. This book provides tools to understand the apparent irrelevance of formal political institutions and practices to social life. In order to enable us to begin to rethink the relations between politics and society, Michael Drake ably synthesises the new theoretical developments that social transformations have produced, including the analysis of power, representation, social identities, social movements, sovereignty, statehood, globalization, revolution, risk and security. Ultimately, the book explores the emergent potentialities and problems of this new politics in a world of continuous transformation, where the parameters of the political are continuously shifting.

Contenu

Chapter 1: Political Sociology and Social Transformation.

Chapter 2: Theorizing Power.

Chapter 3: From Identity Politics to the Politics of
Representation.

Chapter 4: Sovereignty and the State.

Chapter 5: Citizens, Nations and Nationalisms.

Chapter 6: Civil Society and the Public Sphere.

Chapter 7: Social Movements.

Chapter 8: Risk and Securitization.

Chapter 9: Cosmopolitanisms and Post-National Formations.

Chapter 10: War, Terror and Security.

Conclusion.

Bibliography.