Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Cocozza, Antonio, The Unexpected in Action: Ethics, Rationality, and Skills. (Theory and History in the Human and Social Sciences) 136 pp. 2023:4 (Springer, GW) <698-93>
ISBN 978-3-031-26792-5 hard ¥29,168.- (税込) EUR 119.99 *

The book is a true knowledge-enhancing project, dealing with the forms of rationality at work in social life, which are so many, varied and complex. Published already in Spanish and Italian, it analyses the role played by rationality through the lens of social theories in order to propose a problematic interpretation of human action. Since there is nothing more practical than a good theory when seeking to understand our society, the book reflects on the theoretical approaches that provide useful categories by means of which to understand and interpret individual, organizational, and institutional action. It proposes an analysis of a wide variety of classics by eminent European and Anglo-American thinkers, such as Dahrendorf, Mannheim, Marx, Popper, Weber, Habermas, Luhmann, Machiavelli, Pareto, Ardigo, Cesareo, Parsons, Schuetz, Alexander, Bauman, Beck, Sennett, Antiseri, Boudon, Sen, Simon, to shed light on the relationship between rationality, difficulties in thinking and extra-rationality. Finally, the reasons for unexpected action are investigated as well as the strategic role played by ethics, rationality and skills in postmodern societies on the basis of the contributions of Nussbaum and Piketty.

Das, Raju J., Contradictions of Capitalist Society and Culture: Dialectics of Love and Lying. (Studies in Critical Social Sciences 253) 220 pp. 2023:4 (Brill, NE) <698-48>
ISBN 978-90-04-53997-6 hard ¥30,630.- (税込) EUR 126.00

The world experiences rampant ideological/political lying and absence of genuine love. Capitalism utilizes lies to hide its contradictions causing people's suffering which undermines genuine love. The right-wing capitalist politics is a politics of hatred, justified by lies. The analysis of love and lying, as aspects of capitalist culture, has important practical implications for the struggle for socialism.

Kacerauskas, Tomas, Creative Society. 440 pp. 2023:1 (P. Lang, SZ) <698-56>
ISBN 978-3-631-88873-5 hard ¥22,915.- (税込) SFR 93.00 *

The monograph analysis the concept of creative society. The main themes are as follows: culture industry and creative industries, management of creativity, creative ecology, regions of creativity, political aspects of creativity, technologies in the creative society, the problems of an empirical approach towards creativity, and creative phenomenology.

Kaczmarczyk, Michal, The Aporia of Freedom. (Theory Workshop 2) 2023:3 (Brill, NE) <698-57>
ISBN 978-90-04-54006-4 hard ¥31,116.- (税込) EUR 128.00

The Aporia of Freedom systematizes social theories in a new manner, alternative both to the pluralistic concept, according to which social theories are incommensurable, and to the concept which postulates a theoretical synthesis in social sciences. Kaczmarczyk argues that famous social theories constitute interrelated attempts to solve the same problem, called the aporia of freedom. The problem concerns the relation between existential assumptions of social determinism and human freedom. Although these ideas turn out to be mutually exclusive, they seem to be necessary for the construction of a coherent and empirically convincing social theory.

Angermuller, Johannes / Blanchard, Philippe, Careers of the Professoriate: Academic Pathways of the Linguists and Sociologists in Germany, France and the UK. 142 pp. 2023:4 (Palgrave Macmillan, UK) <698-735>
ISBN 978-3-031-25240-2 hard ¥10,936.- (税込) EUR 44.99

This book examines career patterns of the professoriate. Professors may appear as specialised individualists in their fields, and yet they follow pathways which are anything but unique. Drawing from a unique data set, the authors analyse the trajectories of the almost 2000 linguists and sociologists who hold full professorships in Germany, France and the UK in 2015. With a background in social theory, they reveal models, structures and rules that organise the professional lives and biographies of the most senior academics. This book presents the results of a systematic empirical study, which will be of interest to specialists in higher education studies as well as to linguists and sociologists, and to all academics more generally.

Campill, Marc Antoine (ed.), Re-Inventing Organic Metaphors for the Social Sciences. (Theory and History in the Human and Social Sciences) 340 pp. 2023:5 (Springer, GW) <698-737>
ISBN 978-3-031-26676-8 hard ¥36,461.- (税込) EUR 149.99

The "Re-Inventing Organic Metaphors for the Social Sciences" is a volume with the specific goal: to challenge psychological understandings by connecting psychological approaches with multidimensional perspectives of various other scientific streams, meanwhile imbedding the generated knowledge in metaphors that allows researchers to follow phenomena into a deeper and more (w)holistic understanding of its appearance. This is particularly important when the humankind faces challenges due to systemic biological changes, as the phenomenological dynamics bonded to those challenges can be conserved in appropriated context. For this purpose, the organic metaphors are introduced. A tool that has central advantage over mechanical metaphors as it can capture the complex and open-systemic nature of biological, psychological, and social phenomena. For example-the widely used notion "mind as a computer" may be more productively replaced by "mind as a membrane"-with implications (e.g. focus on borders in-between, or in systems in themselves- exosystemic realities in our world). There are many other fertile opportunities not yet explored in the realms of psychology and other sciences. Furthermore, the contributors operated also as cross-reviewers for each other's. In this occasion a new dimension, in chapter construction, will be introduced. Beside the traditional reviewing of another paper the reviewer has been asked to add a small list of extending questions toward the reviewed paper. These added questions have been introduced as potential questions that the authors were demanded to add into a final sub-chapter of their contribution. The subchapter has been titled as "Dialogue" (the author was free to select between the questions and ideas on those they believe could inhabit an especially worth for the future readers).

Z.バウマンと西洋
Palmer, Jack, Zygmunt Bauman and the West: A Sociology of Intellectual Exile. 288 pp. 2023:7 (McGill-Queen's U. Pr., CN) <698-742>
ISBN 978-0-228-01768-4 hard ¥31,416.- (税込) US$ 140.00 *
ISBN 978-0-228-01769-1 paper ¥10,085.- (税込) US$ 44.95 *

Zygmunt Bauman was both an outsider of Western modernity and one of its foremost interpreters. He was an exemplary figure in twentieth-century intellectual work on exile who experienced both Nazi and Soviet forms of totalitarianism.The first work to draw extensively on Bauman's personal archive, Zygmunt Bauman and the West argues that the distinctive social thought that sprang from Bauman's lived experiences of exile amounts to a sustained, sophisticated, and hitherto unappreciated problematization of Eurocentrism and the West. Through an overview of the intellectual's thought and his contribution to sociology, Jack Palmer explores Bauman's experience and interpretation of the West and seeks to understand his work in a broader context, outside of the Eurocentric environment from which it was born. Intervening in a resurgent sociology of intellectuals, Zygmunt Bauman and the West re-evaluates the place of the West in social and political thought.

Pietropaoli, Matteo, Individualism and the Rise of Egosystems: The Extinction Society. (Palgrave Pivot) 148 pp. 2023 (Palgrave Macmillan, UK) <698-743>
ISBN 978-3-031-25280-8 hard ¥10,936.- (税込) EUR 44.99 *

This book is a socio-philosophical journey across several aspects of our society's focus on individual freedom, taking cues from some of the most prominent thinkers of our time. The auhtor posits that the human quest for freedom (mostly dominated by the Western culture but by no means confined to the West) has reached its ultimate paradox of making contemporary humans fundamentally unable to act as ecosystems (thus cooperate and collaborate). They have become egosystems, completely centred on the attainment of their own individual satisfaction. The author sees this as the culmination of a rightful quest for self-affirmation, which has been a key driver of progress across human history and by no means a negative one. But the paradox is that such a human-centred notion of freedom and individual accomplishment results in a much reduced ability to operate in sync with others, at the time when mankind would need more cooperation, collaboration and selflessness to address the key challenges it faces (from climate change to inequalities). Through the examination of the broad and interdisciplinary themes typical of social philosophy and the most recent cultural studies, in direct confrontation with the thought of authors such as Lipovetsky and Bauman, Lasch and Beck, Ehrenberg and Han, this book examines shifts in cultural norms at the possible end of a millenary civilization.

Vogl, Joseph, Kapital und Ressentiment: Eine kurze Theorie der Gegenwart. (C. H. Beck Paperback 6505) 224 S. 2023:2 (Beck, GW) <698-213>
ISBN 978-3-406-79956-3 paper ¥3,889.- (税込) EUR 16.00 *

Es zieht sich eine Spur der Zerstoerung von der Herrschaft der Finanzmaerkte ueber die neuen Netzgiganten bis hin zur dynamisierten Meinungsindustrie. Auf der Strecke bleiben dabei Demokratie, Freiheit und soziale Verantwortung. Joseph Vogl rekonstruiert in seiner brillanten Analyse, wie im digitalen Zeitalter ganz neue unternehmerische Machtformen entstanden sind, die unser vertrautes politisches Universum mit einer eigenen Bewertungslogik ueberschreiben und ueber nationale Grenzen hinweg immer massiver in die Entscheidungsprozesse von Regierungen, Gesellschaften und Volkswirtschaften eingreifen.

Blunden, Andy, Activity Theory: A critical overview. (Studies in Critical Social Sciences 256) 270 pp. 2023:4 (Brill, NE) <698-10>
ISBN 978-90-04-54123-8 hard ¥32,818.- (税込) EUR 135.00 *

Andy Blunden completes his immanent critique of Activity Theory, begun in 2010 with An Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity. A summary of the ontological foundations of Activity Theory introduces a critical review of the work of activity theorists across the world with a focus of applications in medical and educational contexts, and concluded with a review of the ethics of collaboration. Blunden expands the domain of Activity Theory to address the pressing problems facing humanity today and activities lacking in clear objects, collaboration in voluntary projects and social movements, the life projects of individuals and emerging practices. Blunden brings an understanding of Marxist and Hegelian philosophy to bear on the application of Activity Theory to problems of social change.