Martin Kornberger

Christian Borch

This book rethinks the city by examining its various forms of collectivity – their atmospheres, modes of exclusion and self-organization, as well as how they are governed – on the basis of a critical discussion of the notion of urban commons. The idea of the commons has received surprisingly little attention in urban theory, although the city may well be conceived as a shared resource. Urban Commons: Rethinking the City offers an attempt to reconsider what a city might be by studying how the notion of the commons opens up new understandings of urban collectivities, addressing a range of questions about urban diversity, urban governance, urban belonging, urban sexuality, urban subcultures, and urban poverty; but also by discussing in more methodological terms how one might study the urban commons. In these respects, the rethinking of the city undertaken in this book has a critical dimension, as the notion of the commons delivers new insights about how collective urban life is formed and governed.

Rethinking the City

Urban Commons

This book presents a Foucauldian problematisation analysis of crime, with a particular focus on the twentieth century. It considers how crime has been conceived as problem and, by scrutinising the responses that have been adapted to deal with crime, demonstrates how a range of power modalities have evolved throughout the twentieth century. Christian Borch shows how the tendency of criminologists to focus on either disciplinary power or governmentality has neglected the broader complex of Foucault’s concerns: ignoring its historical underpinnings, whilst for the most part limiting studies to only very recent developments, without giving sufficient attention to their historical backdrop. The book uses developments in Denmark – developments that can be readily identified in most other western countries – as a paradigmatic case for understanding how crime has been problematised in the West. Thus, Foucault, Crime and Power: Problematisations of Crime in the Twentieth Century demonstrates that a Foucauldian approach to crime holds greater analytical potentials for criminological research than have so far been recognized.

Problematisations of Crime in the Twentieth Century

Foucault, Crime and Power

Robert Wosnitzer

There has been an increasing interest in financial markets across sociology, history, anthropology, cultural studies, and related disciplines over the past decades, with particular intensity since the 2007–2008 crisis which prompted new analyses of the workings of financial markets and how “scandals of Wall Street” might have huge societal ramifications. The sociologically inclined landscape of finance studies is characterized by different more or less well- established homogeneous camps, with more micro-empirical, social studies of finance approaches on the one end of the spectrum and more theoretical, often neo-Marxist approaches, on the other. Yet alternative approaches are also gaining traction, including work that emphasizes the cultural homologies and interconnections with finance as well as work that, more broadly, is both empirically rigorous and theoretically ambitious. Importantly, across these various approaches to finance, a growing body of literature is taking shape which engages finance in a critical manner. The term “critical finance studies” nonetheless remains largely unfocused and undefined. Against this backdrop, the key rationales of The Routledge Handbook of Critical Finance Studies are firstly to provide a coherent notion of this emergent field and secondly to demonstrate its analytical usefulness across a wide range of central aspects of contemporary finance. As such, the volume will offer a comprehensive guide to students and academics on the field of Finance and Critical Finance Studies, Heterodox Economics, Accounting, and related Management disciplines.

The Routledge Handbook of Critical Finance Studies

A compelling account of how crowd dynamics, or social avalanches, are central to cities and financial markets. Just as urban inhabitants are prone to being caught up in the city's flux, the same dynamic can cause traders on financial exchanges and even the algorithms of present-day financial markets to be captured by the maelstrom of the market.

Crowds, Cities and Financial Markets

Social Avalanche

Niklas Luhmann offers an accessible introduction to one of the most important sociologists of our time. It presents the key concepts within Luhmann’s multifaceted theory of modern society, and compares them with the work of other key social theorists such as Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, and Zygmunt Bauman. The book pays particular attention to introducing and discussing Luhmann’s original sociological systems theory. It presents a thorough investigation into the different phases of his oeuvre, through which both the shifting emphases as well as the continuities in his thinking are shown. The primary focus of this text is Luhmann’s theory of modern society as being differentiated into a plethora of ‘function systems’ – such as politics, law, and economy – which operate according to their own distinct logics and which cannot interfere with one another. For Luhmann, this functional differentiation works as a bulwark against totalitarian rule, and as such is a key foundation of modern democracy. Furthermore, the book critically examines the implications of this functional differentiation for inclusion and exclusion dynamics, as well as for the understanding of power and politics. This is a key text for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of areas including contemporary social theory, political sociology, and sociology.

Niklas Luhmann

This book offers an easily accessible introduction to the sociology of Niklas Luhmann. It presents the key concepts in Luhmann's systems theory, including social systems, autopoiesis, self-reference, and second-order observation. The book also introduces to his analysis of modern society as differentiated into a number of distinctive function systems. The book has a special focus on how Luhmann's work contributes to organization studies, sociology of law, economic sociology, and political sociology/political theory. Further, Luhmann's contributions to sociological debates on risk and inclusion and exclusion are examined. As a part of this, the book compares Luhmann's sociology to the work of other key thinkers in contemporary social theory (e.g. Ulrich Beck and Michel Foucault). The book also demonstrates how systems theory has developed after Luhmann's death in 1998 and focuses in this respect on the empirical analyses which have been conducted within the framework of Luhmann's system theory

In Defence of Modernity

Terrorist attacks seem to mimic other terrorist attacks. Mass shootings appear to mimic previous mass shootings. Financial traders seem to mimic other traders. It is not a novel observation that people often imitate others. Some might even suggest that mimesis is at the core of human interaction. However, understanding such mimesis and its broader implications is no trivial task. Imitation, Contagion, Suggestion sheds important light on the ways in which society is intimately linked to and characterized by mimetic patterns. Taking its starting point in late-nineteenth-century discussions about imitation, contagion, and suggestion, the volume examines a theoretical framework in which mimesis is at the center. The volume investigates some of the key sociological, psychological, and philosophical debates on sociality and individuality that emerged in the wake of the late-nineteenth-century imitation, contagion, and suggestion theorization, and which involved notable thinkers such as Gabriel Tarde, Emile Durkheim, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Furthermore, the volume demonstrates the ways in which important aspects of this theorization have been mobilized throughout the twentieth century and how they may advance present-day analyses of topical issues relating to, e.g. neuroscience, social media, social networks, agent-based modelling, terrorism, virology, financial markets, and affect theory. One of the significant ideas advanced in theories of imitation, contagion, and suggestion is that the individual should be seen not as a sovereign entity, but rather as profoundly externally shaped. In other words, the decisions people make may be unwitting imitations of other people's decisions. Against this backdrop, the volume presents new avenues for social theory and sociological research that take seriously the suggestion that individuality and the social may be mimetically constituted.

On Mimesis and Society

Imitation, Contagion, Suggestion

Architecture is increasingly understood to be a sensual, spatial experience, which means that the experience of buildings and spatial constellations is also a perception of atmospheres that are rated as positive or negative. Architects, planners, investors, and politicians must produce effects such as these according to intersubjective and communicable criteria, and not intuitively or randomly. Architectural Atmospheres addresses the growing awareness of the atmospheric dimension of architecture and provides a current, programmatic discussion of this topic. What possibilities does this approach open to architecture, what value does this knowledge have? Three essays and a conversation lead a cross-discipline discussion on the impact of architecture, and contribute to the debate first initiated by Peter Zumthor. The texts are accompanied bythirty-five color images that capture architectural moods in a variety of ways. Gernot Böhme is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Darmstadt Technical University and Director of the Institute for Practical Philosophy, e.V., Ipph, in Darmstadt, Germany. Christian Borch is Professor of Political Sociology at the Department of Management, Politics, and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic artist. Eliasson incessantly explores our modes of perceiving. His work spans photography, installation, sculpture, and film. Juhani Pallasmaa is one of Finland's most distinguished architects and architectural thinkers.

On the Experience and Politics of Architecture

Architectural Atmospheres

Terrorist attacks seem to mimic other terrorist attacks. Mass shootings appear to mimic previous mass shootings. Financial traders seem to mimic other traders. It is not a novel observation that people often imitate others. Some might even suggest that mimesis is at the core of human interaction. However, understanding such mimesis and its broader implications is no trivial task. Imitation, Contagion, Suggestion sheds important light on the ways in which society is intimately linked to and characterized by mimetic patterns. Taking its starting point in late-nineteenth-century discussions about imitation, contagion, and suggestion, the volume examines a theoretical framework in which mimesis is at the center. The volume investigates some of the key sociological, psychological, and philosophical debates on sociality and individuality that emerged in the wake of the late-nineteenth-century imitation, contagion, and suggestion theorization, and which involved notable thinkers such as Gabriel Tarde, Emile Durkheim, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Furthermore, the volume demonstrates the ways in which important aspects of this theorization have been mobilized throughout the twentieth century and how they may advance present-day analyses of topical issues relating to, e.g. neuroscience, social media, social networks, agent-based modelling, terrorism, virology, financial markets, and affect theory. One of the significant ideas advanced in theories of imitation, contagion, and suggestion is that the individual should be seen not as a sovereign entity, but rather as profoundly externally shaped. In other words, the decisions people make may be unwitting imitations of other people’s decisions. Against this backdrop, the volume presents new avenues for social theory and sociological research that take seriously the suggestion that individuality and the social may be mimetically constituted.

This book offers an accessible introduction to the sociology of Niklas Luhmann. It presents the key concepts in Luhmann's theory of social systems, as well as his analysis of modern society. The book also compares Luhmann's sociology to other contemporary theories, and an examination of Luhmann's contribution to contemporary sociological thinking.

This book analyses sociological discussions on crowds and masses since the late nineteenth century, covering France, Germany and the USA.

Christian Borch

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