|
Showing 1 - 6 of
6 matches in All Departments
In a critical, comparative study of the sociological literature,
this book explores the term "time," and the various
interconnections between time and a broad cluster of topics that
create a conceptual labyrinth. Various understandings of time
manifest themselves in the context of many individual social
problems-there is no single vision in sociology of how to grasp
time and address within social theory. This book, therefore,
attempts to define an approach to the concept of time and its
associated terms (duration, temporality, acceleration, compression,
temporal structures, change, historical consciousness, and others).
The volume is guided by a critical engagement with three main
questions: a) the formation of human understanding of time; b) the
functioning of temporal structures at different levels of social
reality; c) the role and place of time in general sociological
theory.
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.
Individualism and holism, the concepts embedded in the title of
this book, represent two key theoretical perspectives that have for
many decades steered and shaped sociological thought. For over a
century these two interpretative perspectives have also divided
sociological theory into two camps, accompanied by a band of
scholars trying to bridge this dualism. According to American
sociologist Jeffrey C. Alexander, individualist theories derive
their appeal and strength from their underlying assumption that
humans make decisions as individual, free, autonomous, and
rationally and morally consistent beings. A related belief is that
they are able to express these qualities in their actions
regardless of the situation in society or what economic or moral
conditions prevail. Holistic, or collectivist, theories, unlike
individualism, assign primacy to social entities. This perspective
is important because it creates the basic precondition through
which entities can become the subject of deliberate sociological
analysis. However, there is a price for fulfilling this
precondition. The emphasis it places on the collective, and on
larger entities, logically means that the individual will and free
human decision-making tends to be lost from the field of view. This
book argues that these two perspectives, individualist and
holistic, form the central dilemma of sociological thought. It
provides an extensive review and critique of contemporary
sociological approaches to this antinomy and examines attempts that
have been made to overcome it and unite them. Moreover, the book
proposes a new approach to solving this dilemma via the concept of
'critical reconfigurationism', arguing that the resolution of this
dilemma is vital not just for sociological theory but also for
empirical social research.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the range of themes
which make up the field of Historical Sociology. Jiri Subrt
systematically discusses the main problems of societal development,
long term process and changes in the key areas of social life.
These include not only temporalized sociology, evolutionary theory,
civilizational analysis, societal systems, structures and
functions, but also modernization and revolution, risk, crisis,
catastrophe and collapse, wars, conflicts and violence, nations,
nationalism and collective memory. This study does not ignore the
fundamental dichotomy underlying the discipline, which is between
individualism and holism. At the heart of this book lies the human
individual as related to social and historical development. The key
question is who or what is responsible for the process of human
history: society or the individual? The author concludes by
offering an approach which may help in resolving this dilemma.
This book is a comprehensive overview of the theoretical discussion
of one of most important conceptions in sociology at the end of
20th century - the theory of social systems. The spotlight of this
book falls on the work of Niklas Luhmann and his holistic approach.
Current modern society is, for Luhmann, a functionally
differentiated society, which means that a number of specialized
societal sub-systems (politics, economics, religion, law, science,
art etc) have formed. Each system is based on its own type of
communication led by its own generalized communicative media.
Luhmann controversially depicts modern society as a plurality of
many societal subsystems operating without a top and without a
coordinating and managing centre. This book weighs the strong and
weak features of the systemic approach in sociology and discusses
ways to rethink it.
In a critical, comparative study of the sociological literature,
this book explores the term "time," and the various
interconnections between time and a broad cluster of topics that
create a conceptual labyrinth. Various understandings of time
manifest themselves in the context of many individual social
problems-there is no single vision in sociology of how to grasp
time and address within social theory. This book, therefore,
attempts to define an approach to the concept of time and its
associated terms (duration, temporality, acceleration, compression,
temporal structures, change, historical consciousness, and others).
The volume is guided by a critical engagement with three main
questions: a) the formation of human understanding of time; b) the
functioning of temporal structures at different levels of social
reality; c) the role and place of time in general sociological
theory.
|
You may like...
Street God
Dimas Salaberrios
Paperback
(1)
R445
R409
Discovery Miles 4 090
|