Understanding Terrorism: Building on the Sociological Imagination / Edition 1

by Bernard S Phillips

Overview

Two fundamental problems within the social sciences are the failure to integrate the existing segments of knowledge and a very limited ability to point out directions for solving social problems, given that lack of integrated knowledge.This volume illustrates the integrated work of seven sociologists to reverse this situation not only for the problem of terrorism but also for any substantive or applied problem. C. Wright Mills in The Sociological Imagination castigated the failure to integrate social science knowledge, and this volume carries forward his efforts to analyze human complexity.To understand and confront terrorism we require not only the integration of social science knowledge bearing on that problem, as illustrated by these authors. We also require the integration of that knowledge with the understanding of those on the front lines in order to connect the dots of specialized basic and applied knowledge, which this volume makes possible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594513732
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/15/2007
Series:	The Sociological Imagination
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bernard Phillips taught at the University of North Carolina and Illinois before teaching at Boston University. He is author most recently of Armageddon or Evolution? The Scientific Method and Escalating World Problems (Paradigm 2008).

Table of Contents

Part I Introduction; Chapter 1 The Web and Part/Whole Approach to Terrorism, Bernard Phillips; Part II Understanding Terrorism; Chapter 2 Terrorist Organizations and Agency: A Comparative-Historical Approach, J. I. (Hans) Bakker; Chapter 3 Terrorism as an “Ism”: Toward an Interactive versus a Stratified Metaphysics, Bernard Phillips; Chapter 4 Assessing the Fallout of the Terrorist Moment: Anomie and the Fractured American Weltanschauung, Adam Rafalovich; Chapter 5 Runaway Nationalism: Alienation, Shame, and Anger, Thomas J. Scheff; Chapter 6 The Social Psychology of Terrorism, Jonathan H. Turner; Chapter 7 The Post–September 11 Rhetorical Constructions of Terrorism: Applying the Web and Part/Whole Approach to Make Sense of the “Senseless”, Todd Powell-Williams; Part III Connecting the Dots; Chapter 8 On the Relationship of the Web Approach to Some Theoretical Perspectives, Segré Sandro; Chapter 9 Conclusions and Recommendations, Bernard Phillips;