Social Science Ency - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415207940 ISBN 13: 9780415207942

Publisher: Routledge, 1999

Synopsis

The Social Science Encyclopedia, first published in 1985 to acclaim from social scientists, librarians and students, was thoroughly revised in 1996, when reviewers began to describe it as a classic. This third edition has been radically recast. Over half the entries are new or have been entirely rewritten, and most of the balance have been substantially revised.

Written by an international team of contributors, the Encyclopedia offers a global perspective on the key issues within the social sciences. Some 500 entries cover a variety of enduring and newly vital areas of study and research methods. Experts review theoretical debates from neo-evolutionism and rational choice theory to poststructuralism, and address the great questions that cut across the social sciences. What is the influence of genes on behaviour? What is the nature of consciousness and cognition? What are the causes of poverty and wealth? What are the roots of conflict, wars, revolutions and genocidal violence?

This authoritative reference work is aimed at anyone with a serious interest in contemporary academic thinking about the individual in society.

About this title

About the Author:

Adam Kuper is Professor of Human Sciences at Brunel University. He founded the European Association of Social Anthropologists in 1989 and has authored or edited a number of other works, including Conceptualizing Society (1992), and The Chosen Primate (1994), both published by Routledge. Jessica Kuper was co-editor of A Lexicon of Economics (1988) and the first edition of The Social Science Encyclopedia (1985), both published by Routledge. She currently works as a senior editor at a major academic publishing house in the UK.

From Booklist:

Similar to the 1985 first edition, the second edition of the Social Science Encyclopedia attempts to provide broad and up-to-date coverage of all of the social sciences in a single volume. It contains more than 600 signed articles, ranging in length from a few paragraphs to a few pages, representing current theory, practice, and policy in such disciplines as anthropology, economics, education, feminism, geography, government and politics, linguistics, philosophy, and sociology. With such broad coverage, the encyclopedia does not go into great detail. Fortunately, every entry includes a bibliography for further reading. Like the first edition, the encyclopedia is written primarily for specialists in the field. It has a relatively high reading level and will be most useful for researchers and graduate students.

A comparison of the first and second editions indicates that the editors have taken into account the many changes that have occurred in the social sciences over the intervening decade. In a random sample of entries selected from both editions, only one-quarter of the text was found to be the same. Approximately 15 percent of the entries from the first edition were dropped, and more than one-half of all entries have been revised and updated. A further 25 percent of the entries in the second edition are completely new. Many of the articles contain recent findings and citations, some as recent as 1994. This work will replace the first edition and will continue to serve as an update to the old standard, the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. It will be a useful addition to any social sciences research collection.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0415207940
• ISBN 13: 9780415207942
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 952
• Editor: Kuper Adam, Kuper Jessica