This open access book applies insights from the network perspective in health research to explain the reproduction of health inequalities. It discusses the extant literature in this field that strongly correlates differences in social status with health behaviours and outcomes, and add to this literature by providing a coherent theoretical explanation for the causes of these health inequalities…
This Open Access book is an anthropological urban study of the Emirate of Dubai, its institutions, and their evolution. It provides a contemporary history of disability in city planning from a non-Western perspective and explores the cultural context for its positioning. Three insights inform the author’s approach. First, disability research, much like other urban or social issues, must be si…
Drawing on research from high-level industry meetings, petrochemical plant tours, and polluted communities in the United States, China, Europe, Alice Mah examines the changing nature of the petrochemical industry as it faces the existential threats of climate change and environmental activism.
This open access book collects the major discussions in divorce research in Europe. It starts with an understanding of divorce trends. Why was divorce increasing so rapidly throughout the US and Europe and do we see signs of a turn? Do cohabitation breakups influence divorce trends or is there a renewed stability on the partner market? In terms of divorce risks, the book contains new insights o…
In the historical study of the Indian grammarian tradition, a line of demarcation can often be drawn between the conformity of a system with the well-known grammar of Pa?ini and the explanatory effectiveness of that system. One element of Pa?ini’s grammar that scholars have sometimes struggled to bring across this line of demarcation is the theory of homogeneity, or savar?ya, which concerns t…
As the breadth and empirical diversity of entrepreneurship research have increased rapidly during the last decade, the quest to find a "one-size-fits-all" general theory of entrepreneurship has given way to a growing appreciation for the importance of contexts. This promises to improve both the practical relevance and the theoretical rigor of research in this field. Entrepreneurship means diffe…
Seeking a solution, pioneering women not only imagined, made and wore radical new forms of cycle wear, they also patented their inventive designs. The most remarkable of these were convertible costumes that enabled wearers to secretly switch ordinary clothing into cycle wear.
In Awesome Families, Kathleen Jenkins draws on four years of ethnographic research to explain how and why so many individuals-primarily from middle- to upper-middle-class backgrounds-were attracted to this religious group that was founded on principles of enforced community, explicit authoritative relationships, and therapeutic ideals. Weaving classical and contemporary social theory, she argue…
This book sheds light on the integration processes and identity patterns of Angolan, Brazilian and Eastern European communities in Portugal. It examines the privileged position that immigrant organisations hold as interlocutors between the communities they represent and various social service mechanisms operating at national and local levels. Through the collection of ethnographic data and the …
Switzerland likely has the most particular naturalization system in the world. Whereas in most countries citizenship attribution is regulated at the central level of the state, in Switzerland each municipality is accorded the right to decide who can become a Swiss citizen. This book aims at exploring naturalization processes from a comparative perspective and to explain why some municipalities …