UNLV Sociology Faculty Publications: David Dickens

Sin and redemption. The ridiculous and the sublime. The carnivalesque excess of the Strip and the barrenness of the desert surrounding the city. Visited by millions of fortune seekers--and starry-eyed lovers--each year, Las Vegas is a city with as many apparent contradictions as Elvis impersonators, and this complexity is reflected in the diversity of films that have been shot on location there.              A copiously illustrated retrospective of Vegas's appearances on the big screen, this new volume in Intellect'sWorld Film Locations series presents synopses of scenes from a broad selection of films--from big-budget blockbusters like Oceans 11 to acclaimed classics Rain Man,Casino, and The Godfather to cult favorites like Showgirls and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Insightful essays throughout explore a range of topics, including the Rat Pack's Las Vegas, the cinematized Strip, Las Vegas as a frequent backdrop for science fiction, and the various film portrayals of iconic pop-cultural figures like Elvis and Frank Sinatra. Rounding out this information are film stills juxtaposed with photographs of the locations as they appear today.             World Film Locations: Las Vegas goes beyond the clichés of Sin City to examine what Hal Rothman and Mike Davis called "the grit beneath the glitter," thus providing an opportunity to find out more about the unique position Vegas occupies in the popular imagination.

This encyclopedia, magnificently edited by Byron Kaldis, will become a valuable source both of reference and inspiration for all those who are interested in the interrelation between philosophy and the many facets of the social sciences. A must read for every student of the humanities." Wulf Gaertner, University of Osnabrueck, Germany "Like all good works of reference this Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences is not to be treated passively: it provides clear and sometimes controversial material for constructive confrontation. It is a rich resource for critical engagement. The Encyclopedia conceived and edited by Byron Kaldis is a work of impressive scope and I am delighted to have it on my bookshelf." David Bloor, Edinburgh University "This splendid and possibly unique work steers a skilful course between narrower conceptions of philosophy and the social sciences. It will be an invaluable resource for students and researchers in either or both fields, and to anyone working on the interrelations between them." William Outhwaite, Newcastle University The Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences is the first of its kind in bringing the subjects of philosophy and the social sciences together. It is not only about the philosophy of the social sciences but, going beyond that, it is also about the relationship between philosophy and the social sciences. The subject of the Encyclopedia is purposefully multi- and inter-disciplinary. Knowledge boundaries are both delineated and crossed over. The goal is to convey a clear sense of how philosophy looks at the social sciences and to mark out a detailed picture of how the two are interrelated: interwoven at certain times but also differentiated and contrasted at others. The Entries cover topics of central significance but also those that are both controversial and on the cutting-edge, underlining the unique mark of this Encyclopedia: the interrelationship between philosophy and the social sciences, especially as it is found in fresh ideas and unprecedented hybrid disciplinary areas. The Encyclopedia serves a further dual purpose: it contributes to the renewal of the philosophy of the social sciences and helps to promote novel modes of thinking about some of its classic problems.

In 1968, a young SUNY-Buffalo philosophy graduate student named Paul Piccone started a journal called Telos. No one then could have reasonably expected for it to become an intellectual institution. Originally conceived as the self-consciousness of the American New Left, the journal soon ranged more widely as its authors introduced European social theory and philosophy to a largely American audience unaware of these traditions. Piccone forged a "journal of no illusions" that was iconoclastic, skeptical, and yet motivated by the hope that critique and engagement could become constitutive principles for politics and everyday practices. In this book, an array of authors, many of whom participated in the development of Telos, examine the ongoing legacy of the journal, and address the ways in which Telos formed a generation of young intellectuals, who asked for a "critical theory" to understand both the impasses and possibilities for a progressive politics.

The essays in this annual series consist of original research and theory within the general sociological perspective known as Symbolic Interactionism. International in scope, this series draws upon the work of interpretive students of cultural studies, ethnographers, phenomenologists, ethnomethodologists, critical, standpoint and feminist theorists, as well as traditional symbolic interactionists. The emphasis is on new thought and research which bridge links to an emergent critical theory of self, language, the media, socialization, interaction, social relationships, and race, class, and gender.

Editorial Review: "David Dickens and Andrea Fontana bring together a set of thoughtful and reflective assessments of postmodernism, essays that explore the deeper meanings and implications of the postmodern moment--philosophically, theoretically, methodologically, and morally. The essays in this volume separate the wheat from the chaff. They establish new directions in the capacities of social inquiry to comprehend and interpret what is actually occurring in our world today. The essays set a new path for our immediate future in a changing and problematic world." --John M. Johnson, Ph.D., Arizona State University School of Justice Studies

Most writing about Las Vegas focuses on the spectacular story of casino gambling and tourism. This book is different. Written by two renowned urban studies scholars and a local Las Vegas journalist, combining scholarly research with investigative reporting First academic book to provide a synthesis on the recent growth of Las Vegas Appropriate for courses in urban studies, economic development and tourism, communities and cultural studies

This is the first volume of an interdisciplinary publication, drawing on contemporary scholarship in such fields as speech communication, education, anthropology, sociology, history and English. Manuscripts focus on the intersection of interpretive critical theory, qualitative inquiry, culture, media, history, biography and social structure.