Sociology as Science
An Intellectual Autobiography
By Raymond Boudon
Translated by Peter Hamilton

31st March 2013, paperback, 106pp.
ISBN: 978-1-905622-07-8
GEMAS Studies in Social Analysis

In this entertaining and insightful book, Raymond Boudon, one of France’s most eminent sociologists, draws on his personal history and intellectual career, showing how they relate to his distinctive ideas on the claim that contemporary sociology can operate as a true science. His distinctive contributions on such topics as educational and social inequality, rationality, methodological individualism, and the classical tradition in sociology have been influential. Boudon’s perspective moves beyond narrow, parochial and obscure concerns to the broader issues of how best to explain and understand society.

Sociological Reasoning
A Non-Popperian Space of Argumentation
By Jean-Claude Passeron
Edited and Introduced by Derek Robbins
Translated by Rachel Gomme

March 2013, Hardback, 618pp
ISBN 978-1-905622-44-3, £95.00
European Studies in Social Theory

Do the social sciences provide universally valid explanations of human behaviour in society? Passeron thinks not. However, this doesn’t mean that social scientists can only represent the diverse narratives of ordinary people. Passeron argues vigorously that Sociological reasoning enables us, within a historical continuum, to analyse the dialectic between context and individual intention, the general and the particular. This is what defines the social sciences as ‘in-between’ sciences.

Placing Politics
Marc Abélès
Translated by Dominique Lussier

December 2012, paperback, 270 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-905622-45-0
Studies in the African Rift Valley

Publication of this title was supported by THE CHRISTENSEN FUND

In Placing Politics (published originally as Le lieu du politique in 1983), Marc Abélès sets out to study the political practices of the Ochollo from the Gamo highlands of south-west Ethiopia. In doing so he demonstrates that the Ochollo constitute a “democratic” model of organisation where the population is self-administrered by means of frequent assemblies.

The Gamo of Ethiopia
A Study of their Political System
By Jacques Bureau
Translated by Dominique Lussier

December 2012, paperback, 228 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-905622-41-2
Studies in the African Rift Valley

Publication of this title was supported by THE CHRISTENSEN FUND

The Gamo of Ethiopia are made up of around forty political entities integrated into the Menilek Empire in 1897–1898. Each of these entities is governed by a democratic assembly and represented by a sacrificer-king. In The Gamo of Ethiopia (originally published as Les Gamo d’Éthiopie in 1981) Jacques Bureau looks at several of these entities at different moments in their history and studies variants of two types of institution: assemblies and sacrificers.

An Expedition With Negus Menilek
By J.-G. Vanderheym
Translated by Dominque Lussier

December 2012, paperback, 134 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-905622-42-9
Studies in the African Rift Valley

Publication of this title was supported by THE CHRISTENSEN FUND

With his book An Expedition with Negus Menilek, (published here in an English translation for the first time) J.-G. Vanderheym provides a rare eye-witness account, by a European, of everyday life at the court of Emperor Menilek towards the close of the nineteenth century.

Sexuality in France
Practices, Gender and Health
Edited by Nathalie Bajos & Michel Bozon
Research coordinated by Nathalie Beltzer

28 September 2012, Hardback, 590pp
ISBN 978-1-905622-28-3, £150.00
GEMAS Studies in Social Analysis Series

This book presents the most recent and comprehensive scientific study of the sexual behaviour and attitudes of the French. Published for the first time in English, the work is based on a major research survey conducted in 2006–7 with 12,000 participants, and supported by the main social research and health agencies in France.
The findings of this important study paint a fascinating picture of the evolution of attitudes, behaviours, sexual practices and health issues in contemporary France. A major contribution to knowledge about sexual attitudes and behaviour, the work provides important information of concern to social scientists, health professionals and social workers alike, and to all those interested in a better understanding of contemporary sexual life.