This textbook considers understanding social processes to be the main task of sociology. From this perspective its authors demonstrate and explain problems which they consider to be crucial for contemporary social science. These are topics of a theoretical and epistemological nature, which are nevertheless closely connected with social development and issues arising from it. The book moves from the more general theoretical questions and dilemmas raised by key social thinkers, such as those connected with the concepts of actor, agency, institutions, structures and systems. It then leads to theoretical reflections on long-term developmental processes associated with the phenomena of power and life in current societies, including globalization, identities, migration, etc. It provides a comprehensive approach to the essential questions of sociology. Lucidly written and including the latest sociological perspectives, this book will find wide appeal among social science students and researchers, and is also for the socially aware general reader.
Author(s): Jiří Šubrt, Alemayehu Kumsa, Massimiliano Ruzzeddu
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 200
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
About the Authors
Introduction
References
The Society of Individuals and Figurations
Individualism Versus Holism
Elias´s Concept of Figuration
References
Rethinking the Theory of Structuration
Homo Duplex
The Problem of Structure from the Duplex Perspective
References
Actor or Homo Sociologicus
Basic Approaches and Thematic Areas
Role Playing: A Concept to Aid in Resolving the Relationship Between Individualism and Holism
References
The Systems Theory and Functionally Differentiated Society
Media and Communication
Resonance and Filtration
Problematic Order
References
Time as a Sociological Problem
Social Time
Qualitative Discontinuous Time
Confusing Number of Social Times
Weaknesses and Questionable Assumptions
Temporalized Sociology
References
Collective Memory and Historical Consciousness
The Antinomies of Memory
Individual Memory and Collective Memory
Memory Spontaneous and Purposeful
Rationality and Irrationality
Spirit and Matter
The Past Irrevocable and Revocable
Saving and Deleting
History, Myth and Science
History, Memory and Identity
Historical Consciousness as the Focus of Sociological Inquiry
Components Shaping Historical Consciousness
References
Identity Building: A Complex Phenomenon
Identity in Turbulent Times
Complexity
References
Historical Sociology as a Processual Sociology
The Civilising Process
How to Understand Elias Today
Elias´s Conception of Time
What Elias Did Not Deal with
What Else Is Not Reflected in Elias´s Work?
References
Social Power from the Perspective of Historical Sociology
The Concept of Power as Central to Any Understanding of Society
Forms of Social Power
The Elitist School of Thought
The Pluralist School of Thought
One Dimensional Power
Sources of Social Power
Power in the Globalized World
Epilogue
References
Current Societal Processes
Modern Risks
Problem of Interdisciplinary Communication
Multicentric World
The Question of Supervision
The Risky Liberties of Flexible Man
Searching for Social Capital
The End of Ideologies: Why Did It Not Occur?
References
A Hypothesis for a Sociology of Ignorance in the Twenty-First Century
Sociology of Ignorance
Science and Social Actors
Ignorance and Ignorance Communication
Ignorance and Culture
Final Remarks
References
The Dimensions of Globalization
Major Social Factors in the Development of Globalized Sociology
What Is Globalization?
The Dimension and Forms of Globalization
Different Schools and Theories of Globalization
World-System Theory
Theories of Global Capitalism
The Network Society
Theories of Space, Place and Globalization
Theories of Transnationality and Transnationalism
Modernity, Post-modernity and Globalization
Global Age: An Alternative Theory of Globalization
Theories of Global Culture
Major Historical Waves of Globalization
Final Remark
References
A Few Notes About the Open Future (in Place of a Conclusion)
References
