The invisible crisis of contemporary society : reconstructing sociology's fundamental assumptions / Bernard Phillips and Louis C. Johnston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Phillips, Bernard S.

Contributor:

Johnston, Louis C.

Series:

Advancing the sociological imagination

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social problems.

Applied sociology.

Sociology.

Physical Description:

x, 255 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boulder : Paradigm Publishers, [2007]

Summary:

Is there a growing gap in today??'s world between cultural aspirations and their fulfillment, a gap that is increasing social problems of all kinds? If so, what forces are producing that gap? How can these forces be changed? To answer these questions, Phillips and Johnston employ a very broad approach to the scientific method, drawing evidence from a wide variety of data and sources, including sociologists, psychologists, political scientists, historians, philosophers, educators, psychiatrists, and novelists. They find substantial evidence for a widening gap, suggesting an invisible crisis throughout contemporary society. They also find substantial evidence that a simplistic and static metaphysical stance or worldview is largely responsible for that gap, and that an alternative worldview can work to close that gap.

Contents:

Introduction

Social science and metaphysics

The Web and part/whole approach to the scientific method

The invisible crisis of contemporary society

The plan of this book

Physical and biological structures

Isolation versus interaction

Abbott's Flatland: a romance of many dimensions

Buckley's Sociology and modern systems theory

Sommer's Tight spaces: hard architechture and how to humanize it

Some implications

Outward versus inward-outward perception

Kelly's The psychology of personal constructs

Gouldner's The coming crisis of Western sociology

Berger's Ways of seeing

Personality structures

"Head": stratified versus interactive beliefs

Kuhn's The structure of scientific revolutions

Levin's experiment on prejudice

Merton's "The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action"

"Heart": alienation versus expressive orientation

Marx's 1844 essay on alienation

Simmel's "Metropolis and mental life"

Horney's The neurotic personality of our time

"Hand": addiction versus pragmatism

Hesse's The glass bead game

Kaplan's The new world of philosophy

Knottnerus on concentration camps

Social structures

"Head": scientistic versus scientific method

Peirce on the scientific method

Nietzsche's The gay science

Mills' The sociological imagination

"Heart": anomie versus cultural value fulfillment

Durkheim's Suicide

Williams' American society

Chua's World on fire

"Hand": social stratification versus egalitarian relationships

Orwell's Nineteen eighty-four

Goffman's Asylums

Illich's Deschooling society

The situation

"Head": labeling versus reflexive behavior

Hoyle's The black cloud

Scheff's Bloody revenge: emotions, nationalism, and war

Freire's Pedagogy of the oppressed

"Heart": negative versus positive reinforcement

Van Vogt's The players of Null-a

Vidich's and Bensman's Small town in mass society

Busch's "A tentative guide to constructing the future"

"Hand": conforming behavior versus praxis

Greenstein's "Modifying beliefs and behavior through self-confrontation"

Bondurant on Gandhi in Conquest of violence

Lundberg's Can science save us?

Conclusions and implications

Connecting the dots

Conclusions

Some implications.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-249) and index.

ISBN:

9781594513718

1594513716

OCLC:

76416512