Modern and postmodern social theorizing : bridging the divide / Nicos P. Mouzelis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mouzelis, Nicos P., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Postmodernism--Social aspects.

Postmodernism.

Sociology--Methodology.

Sociology.

Sociology--Philosophy.

Social sciences--Philosophy.

Social sciences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 311 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Modern & Postmodern Social Theorizing

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

There is a growing conflict between modern and postmodern social theorists. The latter reject modern approaches as economistic, essentialist and often leading to authoritarian policies. Modernists criticize postmodern approaches for their rejection of holistic conceptual frameworks which facilitate an overall picture of how social wholes (organizations, communities, nation-states, etc.) are constituted, reproduced and transformed. They believe the rejection of holistic methodologies leads to social myopia - a refusal to explore critically the type of broad problems that classical sociology deals with. This book attempts to bridge the divide between these two conflicting perspectives and proposes a novel holistic framework which is neither reductionist/economistic nor essentialist. Modern and Postmodern Social Theorizing will appeal to scholars and students of social theory and of social sciences in general.

Contents:

pt. I. The theoretical background : the development of the agency-structure problematic

1. From Parsons' to Giddens' synthesis

pt. II. Parsonian and post-Parsonian developments

2. Parsons and the development of individual rights

3. Evolution and democracy : Parsons and the collapse of communism

4. Post-Parsonian theory I : neo-functionalism and beyond

5. Post-Parsonian theory II : beyond the normative and the utilitarian

pt. III. Agency and structure : reworking some basic conceptual tools

6. Social and system integration : Lockwood, Habermas and Giddens

7. The subjectivist-objectivist divide : against transcendence

8. Habitus and reflexivity : restructuring Bourdieu's theory of practice

pt. IV. Bridges between modern and late/postmodern theorizing

9. Modernity : a non-Eurocentric conceptualization

10. Ethical relativism : between scientism and cultural relativism

11. Cognitive relativism : between positivistic and relativistic thinking in the social sciences

12. Social causation : between social constructionism and critical realism

pt. V. Towards a non-essentialist holism

13. Grand narratives : contextless and context-sensitive theories

14. The actor-structure dimension : anti-conflationist holism

15. The micro-macro dimension : anti-essentialist holism

16. The inter-institutional dimension : beyond economism and culturalism

App. In defence of 'grand' historical sociology.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-298) and index.

ISBN:

9786611982690

9781107190610

1107190614

9781281982698

1281982695

9780511811418

0511811411

9780511464539

0511464533

9780511462962

0511462964

9780511465277

0511465270

9780511462207

0511462204

9780511463754

0511463758

OCLC:

476232385