This book provides an important new contribution to the literature about Eastern Europe following the political changes of the early 1990s. Its focus is on housing, which before these changes was dominated in all Eastern European countries by state control and, to a lesser extent, state provision. Here, the contributors aim to describe and analyze the fundamental changes that are now taking place as these housing systems, together with their supporting financial institutions and building industries, are privatized.

This book provides an important new contribution to the literature about...

Eastern Europe in Transformation examines the history of sociology in Eastern Europe during the period leading up to and including glasnost and perestroika. Taking advantage of the raising of the iron curtain, the volume editors have assembled 25 contributors from throughout the region to chronicle the impact these developments have had on sociology, as well as any contributions sociologists might have made to them. The result is a fascinating account of a discipline under siege, struggling to come to terms with its place in a changing social milieu. In addition, the work offers Western...

Burton offers a thorough and thoughtful review of research and arguments concerning poverty in the United States. He cites and summarizes the views of influential conservative thinkers and he provides solid evidence to defeat their arguments. While conservative writers have traditionally presented the poor as lazy and unfortunate offshoots of a generally prosperous nation, Burton convincingly demonstrates that poverty in America is widespread and that it is not caused by a lack of ambition.

The text begins with an overview of the true extent of poverty in America, including an...

The primordial bonds of early societies--common ancestry or tribal bonds and territorial or neighborhood bonds--are at the root of early political organization. States based on common tribal or ethnic identity have tended to develop into highly nationalistic states. The civic state, based upon territory, appeared in embryonic form in Athens. It was Rome, however, that made the complete transition, creating a civic state based on an association of free citizens, irrespective of ethnicity.

The tribal state in its extreme, often totalitarian, form has led to genocide, holocausts, and...

This book is the result of a survey conducted among experts on the problems faced by families and women in Central-Eastern Europe. The 16 contributors discuss such issues as: current trends in family and women's predicaments; the similarities and differences between conditions in Central-Eastern European countries; changes in urban and rural family structure; women's educational level; married women's employment; women's political participation. Each contributor evaluates the chances for equal rights and opportunities for men and women, and indicates trends in social policy concerning the...

We are nothing in an absolute sense. We are only what we have been-more exactly, what we remember we were. So begins the latest book by one of Europe's most influential modern sociologists, Franco Ferrarotti. In "The Temptation to Forget," Ferrarotti examines how many in the waning years of the 20th century are attempting to forget or reinvent history to serve the purposes of ethnic, racial, or religious separation.

Ferrarotti focuses on anti-Semitism and its re-emergence among the Skinheads of the 1980s to draw parallels to how the Holocaust has been reinterpreted/forgotten, and to...

It is now common knowledge that the FBI and its long-time director, J. Edgar Hoover, were responsible for the creation of a massive internal security apparatus that undermined the very principles of freedom and democracy they were sworn to protect. While no one was above suspicion, Hoover appears to have held a special disdain for sociologists and placed many of sociology's most prominent American figures under surveillance. Using documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, this volume portrays the FBI's stalking of the sociological imagination, offering a detailed account...

Why do parents who have high levels of education tend to have children who perform better at school, stay at school longer, and end up with more desirable jobs? Researchers have evidence of how distinct factors affect educational and occupational success, but significantly less understanding of the actual mechanisms involved. This work uses new Australian data to investigate those mechanisms, examining how cultural participation and parental encouragement affect adolescent and adult stratification outcomes in advanced modern society. Crook develops theoretical accounts of the possible...

Despite the increased number of interracial marriages in recent years, Black/White couples still experience a host of problems in American society, particularly in the South. Drawing on extensive interviews with 28 Black/White couples living in the South, this ethnographic study describes the issues and obstacles these couples have to face and documents their overwhelming sense of social isolation. The problems include hostility, encountered while the couple is in public, ranging from stares to outright attacks, as well as a lack of support and ostracization by their families. After...