Iran is now at the center of political and social developments in the Middle East. This book examines the reform of the judicial system in 20^th century Iran and is the first to relate state-building process with rule of law promotion and judicial reform in the region. This subject occupies the critical juncture of three developments in the contemporary study of Iranian society as an important and early case of social revolution and reform in the Middle East: the state-building process in a non-Western country throughout the 20^th century, the incorporation of a...

This ethnographic account details the experiences of migrant and transgendered streetwalkers, and window prostitutes in The Netherlands. Through the in-depth interviews and observations, the author explores the meaning sex-workers give to their work and personal lives.

This book offers a rich, insider's viewpoint of the lived experience of brain injury. Sherry, a survivor of brain injury himself, uses a cross-disciplinary theoretical approach (drawing upon the social and medical models of disability and combining them with lessons from feminism, queer theory, postcolonial and postmodern literature) to frame an enriching narrative about the lived experience of brain injury.

This study examines the relationship between social inequality and change in the newly democratic South Africa through the lens of paid domestic labour. The interviews with workers, employers, politicians and activists, offer diverse perspectives on the race, glass and gender divides within South Africa.

This book examines the institutional racism and language discrimination that Black Francophones - who constitute a racial minority situated within a linguistic minority - face and identifies the strategies of resistance Black Francophones invent to gain access to power structures. The book is written to cover an area of research (Black Francophones) that is largely understudied. The book deals with the areas of immigration, race and anti-racism, gender, multiculturalism, linguistic minorities and francophone studies. It brings together multidisciplinary sociological and sociolinguistic...

Through ethnography and interviews at a non-profit foster family agency, Teresa Swartz takes a look behind the scenes of the troubled US foster care system.

Drawing on data the author gathered in Honduras and the United States from weekly time diaries, in-depth interviews, participant observation and interpretive focus groups, she looks specifically at the experience and prospects of transmigrant labor in the United States; the aspirations and consumption practices of transnational family members in the United States and Honduras, especially as the relate to the American Dream; and she explores the ways in which families negotiate caretaking responsibilities, both financial and emotional, while striving and surviving in a transnational space. ...

Kimberly Dugan's study captures the dynamics and interdependence of the gay, lesbian and bisexual movement and the Christian right as they engage in conflict over anti-gay issues.

Despite longstanding traditions of tolerance, inclusion, and democracy in the United States, dissident citizens and social movements have experienced significant and sustained - although often subtle and difficult-to observe - suppression in this country. Using mechanism-based social-movement theory, this book explores a wide range of twentieth century episodes of contention, involving such groups as mid-century communists, the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, and the modern-day globalization movement.

Through an examination of the Chicago Initiative, a local collaboration created by foundations and corporate funders following the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, Silver analyses how elite philanthropists exercise social control over community organisations that do work in poor neighbourhoods.