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C Wright Mills

In "The Sociological Imagination," C. Wright Mills invites readers to explore the intersection of personal biography and social structure, urging us to understand how our individual experiences are shaped by larger societal forces. With a keen sociological eye, Mills challenges readers to see beyond their immediate surroundings and consider the broader historical and structural contexts that inform our lives.

Through compelling arguments and thought-provoking analysis, Mills encourages us to develop a sociological imagination - a critical perspective that enables us to connect our personal troubles to public issues. By examining the interplay between personal biography, historical context, and social structures, Mills sheds light on the complexities of modern society and the interdependent relationships that shape our everyday lives.

"The Sociological Imagination" remains a foundational text in sociology, inspiring readers to question their assumptions, challenge the status quo, and develop a deeper understanding of the intricate web of social forces that influence our world. Mills' compelling work continues to resonate with readers today, offering a timeless exploration of the power of sociological thinking to illuminate the complexities of the human experience.

Oxford University Press. LONDON. OXFORD. NEW YORK. 1959. 239p.

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Philip Slater

Pursuit of Loneliness: American Culture at the Breaking Point by Slater delves into the complex fabric of modern American society, highlighting the pervasive sense of isolation and disconnection that plagues individuals in today's fast-paced world. Through a meticulous examination of cultural trends and societal norms, Slater unravels the layers of loneliness that have woven themselves into the very fabric of American life. The book offers insightful perspectives on the root causes of this phenomenon, shedding light on the impact of technology, urbanization, and shifting social dynamics. As Slater navigates through the myriad factors contributing to this pervasive loneliness, readers are compelled to reflect on their own relationships and experiences within the context of a society teetering on the edge of a breaking point. Pursuit of Loneliness serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of genuine human connection in an increasingly disconnected world, prompting readers to reevaluate the priorities and values that shape their lives.

Boston. Beacon Press. 1970. 166p.

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Jody David Armour

In this groundbreaking book, "Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism: The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America," author delves deep into the complexities of the Black experience in a country where racism continues to shape social, economic, and political realities. Through meticulous research and powerful personal anecdotes, the author sheds light on the insidious nature of Negrophobia and the concept of "reasonable racism," illustrating the profound impacts these phenomena have on the daily lives of Black individuals and communities. This poignant and thought-provoking work challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths and reexamine their own perspectives on race and privilege in America.

New York and London. NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS. 1997. 210p.

By Mark Pitcavage

What is the extreme right in the United States? To many, terms such as “extreme right” and “far right” are simply synonymous with white supremacy. References by the media, political leaders and pundits may reinforce such views, painting a simplistic picture. The reality is the United States is a large, complicated country with ideological fringes equally complex. The American far right is not a monolith but a convoluted landscape encompassing an array of movements and causes. White supremacy is an important feature of that landscape, but hardly the only one. Indeed, when one examines rightwing terrorism in the United States, white supremacist attacks and plots make up only a plurality (43%) of such incidents

Washington, DC: George Washington University, Program on Extremism, 2019. 17p.

By Bibi van Ginkel

In this Research Paper Dr. Bibi van Ginkel takes an in depth look at how multi-lateral institutions, engage with civil society to counter violent extremism. Dr. van Ginkel argues that civil society can play a crucial role in preventing and countering violent extremism in numerous ways – by working on development programs, through their work in conflict transformation, in providing a platform to raise political grievances and to facilitate dialogue, or through their work in empowering victims and survivors of terrorism. The Paper finds that over the last decade there has been a more intensive coordination of activities between the UN and other multi-lateral organisations and civil society but the question remains whether the implementation as well as the drafting of these policies will live up to their potential effectiveness. This Paper gauges how effective these measures have been and what more there is to do. The final section concludes with a series of policy recommendations.

The Hague: The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 2012. 14p.

By Hilary Aked, Mel Jones and David Miller

The Christchurch terror attack put the global Islamophobia epidemic in sharp focus. But the organisations and ideologues responsible for normalising Islamophobia both in Europe and across the Atlantic are rarely scrutinised. The lobbying watchdog Spinwatch published a report in Parliament on 26 March 2019 that examines how the counter-extremism policies of governments in the UK, France and Germany have abetted the rise of an Islamophobic ‘counter-jihad’ movement that makes Islamophobia respectable. This movement has worked with governments to influence policies that are designed to foster suspicion and mistrust of Muslims.

Bristol, UK; University of Bristol, Public Interest Investigations, 2019. 78p.

By Jeff Allison

This report documents representative case studies of incidents in which targeted violence was thwarted by the actions of college students, school administrators and faculty, campus police, and other stakeholders. The examination of these case studies and the lessons learned from them demonstrates progress toward increased safety at colleges and universities. In addition, a companion publication entitled School Resource Officers: Averted School Violence Special Report presents information on K–12 averted violence incidents and the role school resource officers (SRO) assume in supporting student safety.

Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2020. 40p.

By International Crisis Group

Nearly 20,000 Salvadorans were killed from 2014 to 2017. That’s more violent deaths than in several countries that were at war during those years, such as Libya, Somalia and Ukraine. The murder rate – an astonishing 103 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 – is still sky-high at 60 per 100,000 in 2017. The culprit in most of these murders is the maras, the country’s powerful, pervasive criminal gangs.

Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2018. 16p.

By Rachel Briggs and Sebastian Feve

This report is an effort to assess the state of knowledge about ‘counter-narrative’ efforts that aim to challenge the use of the Internet and social media by violent extremist groups. The review considers the use of online content to engage, proselytize, recruit and inspire acts of violence by movements ranging from Al-Qaeda and affiliated networks, to white supremacist communities. Emphasizing that government-led counter-narrative efforts were still quite new at the time of the review, the authors focus on examples primarily from the US and the UK, and provide lessons learned from both government and civil society efforts.

The review is organized around the three main categories of a ‘counter-messaging spectrum’. The first is Government Strategic Communications, which are actions to get the message out about what government is doing, as well as to support the building of relationships with key constituencies. The second, Alternative Narratives, involves actions that aim to undercut extremist narratives by focusing on what one stands ‘for’ rather than ‘against,’ such as principles of openness, freedom and democracy. The third category comprises Counter-Narratives, which are actions to directly challenge the content of extremist messaging, and include showing inconsistencies and contradictions of ideology or fact, or discrediting through ridicule. The authors note that there can be overlap between the three types of activities, and that there will be challenges for delivering messages to indented audiences.

London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2013. 63p.

By Meredith LeAnn Lerma

There has been little empirical research on the spatial relationship of violent far-right extremism. Previous studies have only focused on portions of far-right violent incidents, such as homicides, or amalgamated all far-right extremist activity, including legal incidents. This study uses data from the Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in a temporal frame of 2000 to 2018 to test the relationship of violent incidents against geographic and social factors. The goal is to explore the relationships between macro-level factors and violent far-right extremist incidents. The research determines that the presence of hate groups, higher immigrant populations, higher unemployment rates, higher education levels and higher urbanicity in counties all indicate an increased likelihood a violent extremist far-right incident will take place.

Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas, 2020. 54p.

By Sam Jackson

Over the past two years, and in the wake of deadly attacks in Charlottesville and Pittsburgh, attention paid to right-wing extremism in the United States has grown. Most of this attention focuses on racist extremism, overlooking other forms of right-wing extremism. This article presents a schema of three main forms of right-wing extremism in the United States in order to more clearly understand the landscape: racist extremism, nativist extremism, and anti-government extremism. Additionally, it describes the two primary subcategories of anti-government extremism: the patriot/militia movement and sovereign citizens. Finally, it discusses whether this schema can be applied to right-wing extremism in non-U.S. contexts.

The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 2019. 26p.

By Steven Dudley

El Salvador and its Central American neighbors are experiencing a terrible tide of criminal violence. Homicide rates are some of the highest in the world. This scourge of violent crime is a major concern of policymakers both in the region and in Washington, DC. Indeed, through regional security initiatives the U.S. government has invested more than $500 million in violence reduction programs during the last five years. European development agencies and international NGOs, similarly, have privileged violence reduction in their programs of financial and technical assistance to El Salvador and neighboring countries. Until recently, however, no policy initiatives seem to have made a significant dent in the problem. This paper addresses one development that has been portrayed in some circles as game-changing, and that now constitutes a critical point of reference for violence reduction programs going forward. The truce among rival gangs in El Salvador worked out in March 2012, which has held since that time, has reduced homicides to half their previous levels. The paper examines in particular the widely held belief that the Catholic Church “brokered” that truce in light of the wider set of actors actually responsible and considers the various ways that religion may have an impact on contemporary violence in the region

Washington, DC: American University - Center for Latin American & Latino Studies (CLALS), 2013. 32p.

By Helen Brayley, Ella Cockbain and Kate Gibson.

In recent years, there has been an increased policy and media focus on the sexual exploitation of children in the UK. This interest follows several high-profile police investigations which led to groups of offenders being charged and convicted for sexual offences against multiple child victims. Practitioner groups such as the police and local safeguarding children boards have been criticised for failing to prevent this form of victimisation. Although there has been an upsurge in activity to address child sexual exploitation (CSE), the recent focus has been almost exclusively on female victims and male offenders. The majority of the literature on CSE has either ignored or only briefly acknowledged the experiences of boys and young men as victims rather than offenders. This rapid evidence assessment, part of a wider Nuffield Foundationfunded project, provides an overview of the current literature addressing the experiences of boys and young men who are CSE victims.

London: University College of London, Barnardos'; NetCen,2014. 42p.

By Rosanna Smart, Andrew R. Morral, and Terry L. Schell

The effects of firearm policies, though frequently debated, have historically received less-rigorous scientific evaluation than have the effects of other policies affecting public safety, health, and recreation. Despite improvements in recent years, there is still limited evidence of how some gun policies that are frequently proposed or enacted in the United States are likely to affect important outcomes (such as firearm homicides, property crime, and the right to bear arms). In areas without strong scientific evidence, policymakers and the public rely heavily on what policy advocates or social scientists believe the effects are most likely to be. In this report, part of the RAND Gun Policy in America initiative, RAND researchers describe the combined results from two fieldings (2016 and 2020) of a survey of gun policy experts. Respondents were asked to estimate the likely effects of 19 gun policies on ten outcomes. The researchers use these and other responses to establish the diversity of beliefs among gun policy experts, assess where experts are in more or less agreement on the effects of gun laws, and evaluate whether differences in the policies favored by experts result from differences in experts' assumptions about the policies' effects or differences in experts' policy objectives. The analysis suggests that experts on different sides of the gun policy debate share some objectives but disagree on which policies will achieve those objectives. Therefore, collecting stronger evidence about the true effects of policies is, the researchers believe, a necessary step toward building greater consensus on which policies to pursue.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2021. 138p.

By Patrick Murphy, John Williams and Eric Dunning,

nternational football fixtures, such as the World Cup finals in Italy in 1990, draw together not only rival teams but rival fans. The police and the media are increasingly geared up to tackle international fixtures as occasions for the outbreak of crowd disorder. It can sometimes seem that the behaviour of the fans is more important than the game itself. Football on Trial examines some of the causes of football hooliganism as a European and world phenomenon. It casts an eye forward to the 1994 World Cup in Los Angeles and asks why soccer hooliganism has not been a problem in the USA. It also examines the connections between player violence and spectator violence, and considers the role of the media in producing soccer crowd disorder. The authors have built a world class reputation as authors of Hooligans Abroad and The Roots of Football Hooliganism , a reputation that this accessible and penetrating work can only add to.

London; New York: Routledge, 1990. 255p

By Giovanni Carnibella, Anne Fox, Kate Fox Joe McCann, James Marsh, Peter Marsh

The report contains an up-to-date review of research and theoretical approaches to football violence in Europe. The historical development of the problems in various countries is outlined. Specific attention is given to the role of the media, the emergence of overt racism at football matches and the alleged influence of alcohol consumption on violent behaviour. The content of each section of the report is summarised below. ES.2 History The game of football has been associated with violence since its beginnings in 13th century England. Medieval football matches involved hundreds of players, and were essentially pitched battles between the young men of rival villages and towns - often used as opportunities to settle old feuds, personal arguments and land disputes. Forms of ‘folk-football’ existed in other European countries (such as the German Knappen and Florentine calcio in costume), but the roots of modern football are in these violent English rituals. The much more disciplined game introduced to continental Europe in 1900s was the reformed pastime of the British aristocracy. Other European countries adopted this form of the game, associated with Victorian values of fair-play and retrained enthusiasm. Only two periods in British history have been relatively free of football-related violence: the inter-war years and the decade following the Second World War. The behaviour now known as ‘football hooliganism’ originated in England in the early 1960s, and has been linked with the televising of matches (and of pitch-invasions, riots etc.) and with the ‘reclaiming’ of the game by the working classes. In other European countries, similar patterns of behaviour emerged about 10 years later, in the early 1970s. Some researchers argue that a similar ‘proletarianisation’ of the game was involved, but there is little consensus on this issue, and much disagreement on the extent to which continental youth were influenced by British hooligans

Oxford, UK: Social Issues Research Centre, 1996. 168p.

By Saša Đorđević and Ruggero Scaturro

Legendary Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi called football ‘the most important of the unimportant things in life’.1 This is certainly true in the six countries known as the Western Balkan 6 (WB6) – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Teams in the region have a loyal following, national teams are proudly supported, while star footballers who play abroad are feted at home and in the major European football leagues.2 However, the WB6 also have a reputation for football hooliganism, as when fans chant racist and nationalist slogans, and fight with the followers of rival teams. This problem is by no means unique to the WB6; football hooliganism was labelled the ‘English disease’ in the 1980s, long before it became a problem in the Western Balkans. However, football hooliganism in the WB6 is a potentially explosive cocktail because of its links to politics, ethnic and religious extremism, and organized crime. Football hooliganism has received considerable attention from sociologists and anthropologists, who analyze its cultural aspects,3 and the police, who look at how to prevent and control it.4 However, few studies have considered the relationship between football hooliganism and organized crime. Unlike studies that focus on football hooliganism in particular countries like Croatia or Serbia, where there is extensive research into the links between football and violence,5 this report fills a gap by analyzing the issue from a broader, regional perspective. The report begins by mapping the major football supporters’ clubs in each of the Western Balkan countries. It provides a brief overview of fan groups, including their organizational structure, communication modes and use of national, ethnic and religious symbols. It then identifies which of these groups can be considered ‘ultras’ (i.e. a type of football fan association, see definition box below). Further analysis singles out which of these ultras groups demonstrate attributes of football hooliganism, and how this hooliganism is linked to organized crime and politics. Sorting ultras groups in this way helps to differentiate between those that simply support their clubs, albeit in a fanatical way, and others that engage in organized crime and violence. This report is careful to make a distinction between ultras and football hooligans. Ultras are understood to be groups of hard core football fans affiliated to a particular team; football hooligans engage in violence within the football milieu and some of these hooligans are involved in organized crime.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2022. 53p.

Edited by Sundari Anitha and Ruth Lewis.

Policy, prevention and educational initiatives. “This collection comes in the midst of some promising and challenging times for activists, students and academics in the UK and beyond who have been researching and campaigning on the issue of gender based violence (GBV) in university communities. In the context of emerging research evidence and in the face of increasing public awareness of and media attention on this problem, these are indeed the first steps towards acknowledging and addressing it in countries including the UK and Australia.”

Policy Press (2018) 282p.

Edited by Johan Temmerman.

Religious Radicalism scrutinizes the religious motives and mechanisms of radicalism. The contributors observe a growing lack of understanding of religion in secular policy-bodies, as well as in the academic world in Europea and beyond. They put forward an approach 'from within' and aim to provide policy-makers with workable tools and a user-friendly method for constructively tackling religious radicalism. The underlying issue is the question of the role of the rule of law in relation to human rights in relation to religious minorities. This edited volume brings forward an interdisciplinary approach to religious radicalism blending religious studies, theology, and cultural criticism. Above all Religious Radicalism is an invitation for dialogue and a plea for understanding. In the current polarized cultural climate it is delicate to ask for prejudices to be avoided. We can tend to think that the 'other' has to trust us, and that change applies to those who think and feel differently than we do. Increasing illiteracy is both a cause and effect of religious radicalism. Those who do not feel understood and recognized and whose identity is systematically discredited turn against the institutional powers that leave the offence untouched. In short, radicalism is threatening. But for those who are completely alien to customs and backgrounds, symbols and behavior, the unprecedented and unfamiliar are just as much of a threat. This form of radicalism, which is rapidly rising on wings of ignorance, also calls for self-criticism.

Brussels: Uitgeverij ASP (Academic and Scientific Publishers nv) , 2021. 212p.

By Anton Makarenko.

As one of the founders of Soviet pedagogy, Anton Makarenko elaborated the theory and methodology of upbringing in self-governing child collectives and introduced the concept of productive labor into the educational system. Encouraged by Gorky, Makarenko wrote The Pedagogical Poem (in the West The Road to Life) based on the true stories of his pupils from the orphanage for street children, which he started in 1925.

Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint. (1933) 441 pages.