C. Wright Mills and the Ending of Violence

by Brewer, John

• ISBN13: 9780333801802
• ISBN10: 0333801806
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-17
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book has two aims: to clarify the meaning of C. Wright Mills's depiction of the sociological imagination; and to use this to develop a sociological framework that assists in understanding the process by which communal violence has ended in Northern Ireland and South Africa. The contrast between these two societies is a familiar one, but the book is novel by developing an explanatory framework based on Mills's "sociological imagination". This model merges developments in the two countries at the individual, social structural and political arenas in order to account for the emergence of their peace processes.

Author Biography

John D. Brewer is Professor of Sociology, Queen's University, Belfast.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Conflict, Violence and Peace	1	(16)
1 C. Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination	17	(28)
2 The Historical Specificity of the Peace Process	45	(26)
3 Individual Biographical Experiences and Peace	71	(38)
4 The Intersection of Politics and the Social Structure	109	(42)
Conclusion: The Sociological Imagination and the Peace Process	151	(28)
Bibliography	179	(12)
Index	191