[Air-L] New Book: Sociological Theory for Digital Society

[ori schwarz]

Dear colleagues,

I'm happy to announce that my new book *Sociological Theory for Digital
Society* has just been published by Polity:
https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509542963 .
<https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509542963> About The Book The
digital revolution has not only transformed multiple aspects of social life
– it also shakes sociological theory, transforming the most basic
assumptions that have underlain it. In this timely book, Ori Schwarz
explores the main challenges digitalization poses to different strands of
sociological theory and offers paths to adapt them to new social realities.
What would symbolic interactionism look like in a world where interaction
no longer takes place within bounded situations and is constantly
documented as durable digital objects? How should we understand new
digitally mediated forms of human association that bind our actions and
lives together but have little in common with old-time 'collectives'; and
why are they not simply ‘social networks’? How does social capital
transform when it is materialized in a digital form, and how does it
remould power structures? What happens to our conceptualization of power
when faced with the emergence of new forms of algorithmic power? And what
happens when labour departs from work? By posing and answering such
fascinating questions, and offering critical tools for both students and
scholars of social theory and digital society to engage with them, this
thought-provoking book draws the outline of future sociological theory for
our digital society. Table of Contents

1.     *Introduction*: Old disciplines, new times, revised theories

2.     *When Interactions Become Objects:* Rethinking symbolic
interactionism in the post-situational order

3.     *When Networks Materialize:* Rethinking social ontology beyond the
individual and the collective

4.     *When Social Capital can be Invested:* Rethinking social capital

5.     *When Power is Exercised through Algorithms:* Rethinking power under
generative rulers

6.     *When Labour is Everywhere:* Rethinking work in the era of workless
labour

7.     *Conclusion:* Sociological theory for the future
Reviews‘This insightful, sophisticated and original work develops a
compelling reformulation of several key currents of sociological theory –
addressing interaction, networks, social capital, power and work/labour –
in light of the increasingly pervasive digital mediation of every aspect of
social life.’
—Rogers Brubaker, University of California, Los Angeles

‘In this striking new book Ori Schwarz argues that sociological theory is a
creature of its time. And so the changes in the digital social landscape
call for a revitalized theory that is able to cope with the emerging shifts
and sharp turns. Keeping a watchful eye on the past and the present, this
pathbreaking book seeks to rejuvenate sociological theory for these
switched-on, hyper-networked and seemingly accelerating times.’
—David Beer, University of York

--
Prof. Ori Schwarz
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
and Center for Cultural Sociology
Bar-Ilan University
Author of Sociological Theory for Digital Society: The Codes that Bind Us
Together <https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509542963> (Polity,
2021)
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ori_Schwarz