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This book by Jonathan Turner and Anthony Roberts proposes a new theoretical approach for explaining the dynamics of inter-societal systems. The authors argue that inter-societal systems have existed since the beginning of human societies and the dynamics of these systems are a fundamental property of the social universe. However, while world-systems analysis has emphasized this latter point, the authors argue the reluctance to theorize complex abstract models and systems of explanatory propositions on the dynamics driving inter-societal systems hinders scientific explanation of inter-societal dynamics. In this context, the authors critically look at contemporary theorizing and review key theories that have been developed to explain geo-economic, geo-political, and geo-cultural dynamics, from the classic period through present-day world-systems analysis and cliometrics. The book summarizes these theories clearly, emphasizing their strengths and weakness, finally developing a theoreticalsynthesis through new models and propositions on the dynamics of premodern and modern inter-societal systems.
Professor Turner's decades of experience writing theory books for undergraduates have ensured that this book presents abstract ideas clearly and with examples so that students can understand the arguments. This book is a must-read for all social theory researchers, academics, serious undergraduate students, graduate students, and interested laypersons.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Fundamental Properties of Societies.- Chapter 2: Current Theorizing of Inter-Societal Dynamics: Origins and Critiques.- Chapter 3: Key Ideas for Building a Scientific Theory of Inter-Societal Dynamics.- Chapter 4: Scientific Theorizing of Inter-Societal Dynamics.- Chapter 5: Geo-Political Dynamics.- Chapter 6: Geo-Economic Dynamics.- Chapter 7: Geo-Cultural Dynamics.- Epilogue: Toward a Reorientation of Theorizing Inter-Societal Dynamics.
About the author
Jonathan H. Turner is the 38th University Professor of the University of California system, Distinguished Professor of the Graduate Division of the University of California, Riverside, Research Professor of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Director of the Institute for Theoretical Social Science, Santa Barbara. He is one of the foremost sociologists in the world and has written numerous articles, book chapters and a significant number of authored and edited volumes on introductory sociology, sociological theory, the sociology of emotions, race and ethnic relations, social change, and many other areas that have shaped the discipline of sociology as it stands today.
Anthony J. Roberts is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Colorado State University. He is a research associate at the Institute for Research on Labor & Employment at the University of California Los Angeles and faculty affiliate at the Center for Fair and Alternative Trade and the Data Science Research Institute at Colorado State University. He has published many peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters on world-systems, development, stratification, and economic inequality. This is his first book.
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