International Perspectives on Social Theory

This book opens with an identification of the characteristics that define contemporary social movements, including: a blurring and overlapping of taxonomical categories, an evolution towards a post-post-political stage, a great variety and hybridisation of organisational structures, an extension of activism to new social and cultural dimensions as the postmodern worldview and agendas become hegemonic, a trend to become global through the reticulated architecture of the space of flows and a capacity for action enhanced by the use of new communication technologies. Following this, the authors examine the interrelationship between data privacy, data governance, and ethics management in light of recent data privacy legislation, particularly focusing on how online activities that compromise personal data have led to the creation of new regulations that are designed to protect individual privacy rights. The current tendency in sociology to favour the naturalising of discriminations is highlighted, beginning with the example of the axiological discrimination between experts and the groups they themselves stratify. This process prioritises the "normal" and moralism. The final study applied the "exit, voice, loyalty and neglect" framework to investigate how the perceived impact of poor housing management, self-efficacy belief and sense of community influence residents' responses to poor housing management in Hong Kong.