Davita Silfen Glasberg - Political Sociology

POLITICAL
SOCIOLOGY

Davita Silfen Glasberg

University of Connecticut

Deric Shannon

University of Connecticut

Copyright 2011 by Pine Forge Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Glasberg, Davita Silfen.

Political sociology : oppression, resistance, and the state / Davita Glasberg, Deric Shannon.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4129-8040-1 (pbk.)

1. Political sociology. 2. Oppression (Psychology). 3. Social movements. I. Shannon, Deric. II. Title.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

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I nterest in political sociology has ebbed and flowed with the intensity of political events. Keen interest piqued during the Vietnam War and its aftermath, waned somewhat during the Reagan years, and now appears to be resurging once again in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the presidential election process of 2008. The severe global recession of 2008 through 2010 has also grabbed the attention of many people eager to understand how and why such a significant economic and political quake could happen and arguably galvanized the likes of the Tea Party movement in the United States. Indeed, the current wave of interest began well before the September 11 attacks: The American Sociological Associations Guide to Graduate Departments of Sociology lists 52 graduate-degree-granting institutions as offering political sociology as one of their specialties. Political sociology has one of the largest section memberships of the American Sociological Association. And student interest, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, appears to be increasing. Political sociology is identified by many of the top graduate programs in sociology as one area of graduate qualifying examination taken by a significant number, if not a majority, of students. These suggest a rising demand for materials to teach political sociology.

Oddly enough, there is a frustrating limitation of political sociology textbooks available, and those that are currently in print do a variable job of covering the main theoretical currents and empirical research issues one would need to cover when teaching such a course. Further, while the study of the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexualities is increasingly a focus in sociology, none of the existing textbooks deals with these as important relative to a study of political sociology. In addition, questions of compliance and resistance are not satisfactorily covered. The question of how we may come to accept and comply with the interests of dominants in society, even when this may contradict our own interests, is at least partially explained by exploring issues and processes of political socialization. However, this is often left unexplored. And while social movements are often understood among sociologists to be an important organizational mechanism used by those with relatively little power to resist and challenge power structures, existing textbooks devote variable attention to its analysis. Without a focused examination of social movements, students may be left with an overriding belief that power structures are inexorable and unchangeable, a conclusion many sociologists would be loathe to encourage in our students.

Finally, theoretical perspectives in political sociology largely frame their analyses on class-based concepts and issues of power and the state. None of them explore the question of multiple oppressions. But how do we understand oppression beyond class-based oppression? Are the prevalent models of class-based theories of power and the state sufficient, such that we simply need to add and stir concepts of gender, racialization, and heteronormativity for insight? Or is there a need to reconceptualize our framework and develop a more flexible view of the relationship among the state, society, and oppression that enables us to understand multiple oppressions? This book explores possible ways to respond to these questions.

The book is intended for use in political sociology courses as well as sociology courses in race, class, and gender and theories of the state. It may serve as a comprehensive text for the courses or as a core text to be supplemented with other readings and materials (such as videos, for example). It can also be used as a monograph in addition to other monographs. Students who take most of these courses are commonly juniors and seniors (students in Sociology of Race, Class, and Gender commonly are also first-year students and sophomores) majoring in sociology, political science, history, anthropology, peace studies, womens studies, African American studies, Asian American studies, Latino studies, labor studies, and philosophy. They have usually taken an introductory sociology, social problems, or political science course as preparation. This book is intended to help students develop a wide array of concepts and theoretical perspectives so that they may analyze and understand new developments in the world around them after they leave the course. It also intends to propose a multidimensional view of the relationship among the state, society, and oppression and inequality that blends elements of the prevalent theories of power and the state. That proposed view allows for greater analytical flexibility to better understand gendered, racialized, and heteronormative relationships as well as the more commonly explored class-based relationships among the state, society, and multiple oppressions.

The central theme of the book is the interplay among power, inequality and multiple oppressions, and the state. That is, the book takes critical issue with the idea that power is random, dispersed, and shared by all so that any one interest at any point in time may rise to have its interests met. Instead, the book focuses on the structure of power and inequality to examine the