Four myths in the history of social thought

Four commonly held interpretations of the development of European social thought in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are analysed and criticised, with particular reference to Durkheim's writings. These four myths are: the notion that Durkheim's sociology developed in substantial degree as a response to the ‘problem of order’; the conception that Durkheim's work is to be understood in terms of its origins in ‘conservative’ social thought; the view that Durkheim's writings, together with those of some of his contemporaries, mark a radical break in the transition from ‘social philosophy’ to ‘sociology’; and the idea that the type of intellectual tradition represented by Durkheim, concerned with the ‘problem of order’, can be usefully compared with a divergent tradition concerned with ‘conflict’ and ‘change’. It is argued that while these myths each contain a kernel of truth, this can only be extracted if Durkheim's writings are examined in relation to the historical context in which he developed his sociological concerns.     

Durkheim and the Reflexive Condition of Modernity

Abstract

In this essay, Durkheim's work is approached from a double vantage point. One vantage point looks at Durkheim's work with a post-classical attitude that inter sects the ontological recasting of the social in the work of Castoriadis. It is in the context of social opening that will concentrate on Durkheim's work as it presents a model of reflexivity that concentrates on the historical development of the modern period. Durkheim's model of reflexivity also opens onto the other vantage point of political modernity, which is viewed as a particular constellation of the circulation of power, especially in nation-states, open forms of reflexivity, and democracy, in contrast to another political modernity that revolves around closed socially reflexive forms of totalitarianism and terrorism. Durkheim's work can be a fruitful point of departure for an analysis of political modernity because his theorisation occurs in a way that opens onto the historical development of its mode of reflexivity.     

The Sacred,Social Creativity and the State

Abstract

This paper explores the specific contribution of a strand of contemporary French social theory founded by Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort to the under standing of human power. It formulates a conception of power that transcends its definitions in terms of physical coercion or institutionalised violence to reveal the way power is creative and institutes the social. Its reflection on the cultural nature of political power and it role in society is shown to extend the pioneering reflection of Durkheim's sociology, especially as regards the homology that exists between religion and politics. The social role performed by the state explored by Durkheim prefigures Gauchet's theory of the state, which builds on Lefort's work. Gauchet's theory can be said to elaborate a critical synthesis of the two stands of Durkheim's work: the sociology of religion and the sociology of the modern state. This synthesis raises questions on the role played by the European state in the development of individualism, in both its political and economic manifestations.     

Introuduction to Deleuze

Modernity has faced many criticisms but none more disturbing than Bauman's claim that the potential for a Holocaust exists in all modern societies. Though essentially a sociological work, Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust centers on political phenomena: bureaucracy, the State's monopoly of coercion and political democracy. This claimed relationship between modernity and the Holocaust is examined critically, drawing particularly on the classic analyses of totalitarianism. The findings show that there is no inherent potential for a Holocaust in modern, rational, society. Rather, ‘common and ordinary’ aspects of modern society serve not to promote but to prevent modern genocide and chosen policies play the largest part in explaining the horrors not only of Nazi Germany but also of Stalinist Russia.     

Foam architecture: managing co-isolated associations

Abstract

This article analyses Peter Sloterdijk's grand trilogy on spheres which re-conceptualizes our being-together and its spatial conditions. After a brief outline of the main objectives of sphereology, I analyse the notion of foam which, Sloterdijk argues, should replace the concept of society. I here explore the sociological theories that form the backdrop to Sloterdijk's idea of foam sociality, in particular Gabriel Tarde's monadological sociology of imitation but also the vitalist impulse that is central to the immunology of the foam theory, and which Sloterdijk inherits from Hermann Broch. The following section examines one of the important contributions of the foam theory, namely, its explicit engagement with architecture. In the final part, I offer a foam-theoretical interpretation of environmental crime prevention. This case study brings together foam theory, immunology and the focus on architecture.     

Emile Durkheim revisited: Les corps intermediaires

The article discusses the relevance of Emile Durkheim for contemporary debates about citizenship and democracy. If the concepts of social bonds and solidarity which have existed from the classical period of the welfare state until today are under revision the question is whether the thoughts of Durkheim have lost relevance too? Parsons's interpretation of Durkheim as a theorist of social order is criticized. He did not look for a functional order of the Parsonian type. More likely Durkheim was preoccupied with the paradoxes and problems of the liberal state, that is the search for a type of authority compatible with modern individual rights. Durkheim's focal interest in intermediary institutions is analysed and related to the neoliberal view of the welfare state as having too much influence over the individual. It tends to forget les corps intermédiaires as important preconditions for the construction of citizenship and modern democracies. The communitarian vision of modern intermediary bodies in the 1990s is criticized for being too local in its perspective.     

On Marx's theory of agricultural rent: A reply to Ben Fine

This article criticizes both the 'Marxist' and 'sociological' conceptualizations of money to be found in the recent debate between Fine, Lapavitsas and Zelizer in Economy and Society . They neglect important contributions to the theory of money, especially the 'credit' and 'state' theories of money in the social sciences. These emphasize, as did Keynes, the central theoretical importance of money of account . These approaches were banished from orthodox economics and lost to sociology in the post- Methodenstreit division of intellectual labour in the social sciences. Marxist economics has never properly addressed this monetary analysis. Although neglected, it is not obscure and informs the more widely known post-Keynesian theory of money. This article argues that these heterodox theories of money are essentially sociological in that they involve the conceptualization of money as abstract value constituted by the social relation of the 'promise to pay'.     

Theory of science and history of science

The article uses an interesting discussion between historian and philosopher of science as point of departure for a brief examination of the special task of the sociology of sciences. Both historian and philosopher proceed according to certain ritualised conventions. They take it for granted that it is possible, today as in the seventeenth century, to work out a theory of science by concentrating on one science only, on theoretical physics. They are unable to come to grips with the diversification of sciences as a theoretical problem. The growth of a single science itself is treated by them as if it were an absolutely autonomous social development. A sociological theory of sciences has to take account of the observable advance of scientific knowledge into areas of the universe that were previously unknown or inaccessible to scientific exploration. It has to take account for instance of the emergence of biological and social sciences both as a science-immanent and a science-transcendent problem. Philosophers and historians of science have constructed a seemingly impenetrable conceptual wall between immanent and transcendent developments. According to them, ‘internal’ history of a science can be treated as independent of ‘external’ history. The article indicates that this is part of a professional ideology. By claiming absolute autonomy for one's subject matter one tries to secure the absolute autonomy of one's profession. If that claim is abandoned the fashionable problem of continuities and discontinuities in the development of sciences appears in a different light. Neither discontinuity nor autonomy of a scientific development can ever be absolute. Its relative autonomy, however, can grow or diminish. That of physics, for instance, is at present noticeably greater than that of sociology. One may well ask why that is the case. That is the kind of problem which requires a sociological as distinct from a philosophical or historical investigation.     

Leadership and Economic Theories of Nonprofit Organizations

Economic theories of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have modified standard economic assumptions to explain altruism and nonprofit entrepreneurship but have neglected their dependence on leadership due to the traditional reluctance of economists to consider phenomena associated with preference change. The relevance of Hermalin's (1998 ) model of leadership by example and Casson's (1991 ) theory of leadership through moral manipulation are considered within an NPO context where leaders seek to influence stakeholder commitments to the organization's quest. The propositions Elster (1998 ) advanced with regard to the relationship between the emotions and decision making are then applied in a theory that explains how NPO leaders can develop a culture of hope that maintains the quality control and product differentiation advantages claimed for these organizations. It is argued that policymakers should consider the dependence of NPOs on the quality of leadership when choosing the organizational mechanism for social service delivery.     

Pierre Bourdieu: From Neo-Kantian to Hegelian Critical Social Theory

Abstract

This paper challenges the commonly made claim that the work of Pierre Bourdieu is fundamentally anti-Hegelian in orientation. In contrast, it argues that the development of Bourdieu's work from its earliest structuralist through its later ‘post-structuralist’ phase is better described in terms of a shift from a late nineteenth century neo-Kantian to a distinctly Hegelian post-Kantian outlook. In his break with structuralism, Bourdieu appealed to a bodily based logic of practice' to explain the binaristic logic of Lévi-Strauss' structuralist analyses of myth. Effectively working within the tradition of the Durkheimian approach to symbolic classification, Lévi-Strauss had inherited Durkheim's distinctly neo-Kantian understanding of the role of categories in experience and action—an account that conflated two forms of representation—‘intuitions’ and ‘concepts’—that Kant himself had held distinct. Bourdieu's appeal to the role of the body's dispositional habitus can be considered as a retrieval of Hegel's earlier quite different reworking of Kant's intuition-concept distinction in terms of distinct ‘logics’ with different forms of ‘negation’. Bourdieu commonly acknowledged the parallels of his analyses of social life to those of Hegel, but opposed Hegelianism because he believed that Hegel had remained entrapped within the dynamics of mythopoeic thought. In contrast, Durkheim and Lévi-Strauss, he claimed, by instituting a science of myth, had broken with it. This criticism of Hegel, however, relies on an understanding of his philosophy that has been rejected by many contemporary Hegel scholars, and without it, the gap separating Hegel and Bourdieu narrows dramatically     

Spaces of Informalisation: Playscapes,Power and the Governance of Behaviour

Geographers have contributed a great deal towards an understanding of social control across different spaces and the ways in which power is exercised in the interests of élite groups to the detriment of marginalised ‘others’. Little attention however, has been given to decontrolled spaces: spaces where the standard of conduct expected of previous generations is no longer as rigid and formalised as it once was. This paper draws on the work of Norbert Elias and Cas Wouters in exploring how previously prohibited behaviours become admissible within particular social situations, groups and settings: a process known as informalisation. The informalisation thesis posits that a long-term perspective can elucidate the ways in which gradual changes in expected standards of behaviour are linked to corresponding changes in social habitus and the power differentials that characterise the social relations between élite and outsider groups. The paper contends that a revision of the sociological concept of informalisation, emphasising spatial context and difference, can contribute a great deal to debates in human geography. It is argued that the spatialisation of Elias' work could provide a useful theoretical framework with which to enhance the geographer's understanding of the relationship between group identities, power, social change and governance. Conversely, a focus on the spaces of informalisation may also advance the theory from a sociological perspective. The theory is applied to specific playscapes and highlights the uneven, problematic nature of contemporary governance projects and the related problem of social misdiagnoses in the quest towards the ‘non-antagonistic’ city.     

Bringing the ‘economic’ back in;the case of nationalism

Marxism and Nationalism analyses the histroy of thinking on nationalism within classical historical materalism from Marx and engles themselves, through lenin and the Austro-Marxists to Gramsci. While it identifies variations in the degree of reductionism and economism involved, it finds a recurrent distorian due to the underlying errors of Marxist theory itself. The theorist who most escaped from these constraints was Otto Bauer. Nimni's analysis, while rich and suggestive, is however too indulgent towards nationalism itself, and fails to identify the enduring importance of economic factors in the rise of nationalist movements. Itis also mistakenly identifies as specific to marxism a belitting of nationalism that is common to much liberal and sociological thought.     

Theoretical practice and the sociology of knowledge a reply to Paul Q. Hirst: Recent tendencies in sociological theory

This article is a consideration of the viability of an aesthetically oriented social theory. After a discussion of some aspects of Michel Maffesoli's writings, the paper goes on to argue for three: 1. that we might take an interest in the aesthetic sphere not from the perspective of a critique of ideology or from that of critical philosophy but throguh a concern for something like Problematics of freedom: 2 that, against the understandable temptations of a sociological reduction of art, we need to treat aesthetic autonomy with a certain benign seriousness, that is to say, as a (moral, ethical, aesthetic) problem; and 3. That, in contrast to the aestheticizing tendencies of much of what goes by the name of cultural sociology, the question of the aestheticization of culture needs to be analysed in terms, above all, of its ascetic properties, aspirations and directions.     

Utility and excess: the radical sociology of Bataille and baudrillard

This paper consists of three sections. In the first in will attempt it will attempt to establish the theoretical centrality of the contrasting notions of utility and of excess in relation to their treatements within the ‘sociological mainstream’. The second section will introduce antother, radical sociological lineage extending from Nietzsche through Bataille and on to baudrillard. It will be argued that this ineage offers a more adequate approach to the analysis of the linked yet contrasting notions of utility and excess. These concepts will be approached, first, through the notion of general economy, in contrast to the theories and methods of restricted economy, particularly as it operates in the work of Bataille. The theory of Baudrillard will be situated as a treatment of the Problematic of excess in the modern age whereby utility and excess are no longer starkly and simply counterposed. Further, it will argue that Baudrillard's work reveals the importance of a radical theory of contemporary society, one which goes beyond not only restricted explanatory economies but also the notion of general economy itself. it is argued that the dominant strands of modern sociology are ocked within the methodological and theoretical structures of utility and of restricted economy and that this constitutes its fatal weakness. The specific maniestations of excess discussed are social violence, particularly sacrifice and death, transgression, ‘evil’ and the notion of ‘profitless expenditure’. The final section deals, briefly, with the theoretical and material consequences of ture'. The final section deals, briefly, with the theoretical and material consequences of the continue suppression, denial or domestication of this radical or marginal lineage.     

Political power and political subsystems: Parsons' analysis of politics

In the field of sociological analyses of politics and power Parsons' contribution has tended to be dismissed abruptly as the ultimate expression of ‘consensus’ theory, and has been accused of denying the existence of social tensions and social change. This paper argues that this tendency is quite inadequate, indeed erroneous, and proposes a distinct mode of critique of Parsons' theory of politics and power. On the basis of an outline of the major concepts of this theory, the concepts of functional subsystems, system-goals and structural differentiation, it shows that Parsons has produced a distinct but nevertheless theoretically problematic framework for socio-political analysis. His concept of system-interchange is shown to be based on a contradictory treatment of subsystems and human subjects, and his outline of structural differentiation is shown to produce a theoretical teleology.     

Between social and organic norms: reading Canguilhem and ‘somatization’

Contemporary accounts of somatization tend to imply that the 'biological' and the 'social' are competing and mutually contradictory epistemological perspectives. This situation ismirrored by the alternative between biomedical objectivism and sociological relativism in accounting for the reality (or, indeed, the non-reality) of this phenomenon as a pathological condition. This paper reads the debate on somatization through Canguilhem's writings. Cnaguilhem's vitalism sees the 'social' and the 'organic' as perspectives pertinent to the living subject, before and beyond being perspectives of the subject of knowledge. As such, they do not represent mutually exclusive choices but rather norms that interact in and through their difference, bearing on the quality of life as healthy or pathological. On this basis, the paper offers an account of how the reality of somatization might be envisaged so as to avoid the implications of both positivism and relativism.     

Tocqueville and Weber on the sociological origins of citizenship: The political culture of American democracy

While Alexis de Tocqueville's commentary on America is famous, Max Weber's is far less so. However, in scattered writings, he addresses two of the themes at the centre of Tocqueville's analysis of the ‘manners and mores’ of the American political culture: the potential for a ‘tyranny of the majority’ in the US and the critical role of civil associations. By reference to these two themes, this study seeks to examine the divergent perspectives of these classicial theorists upon the political culture of the US, contrast Tocqueville's more structural and interest‐based mode of analysis to Weber's emphasis upon the significance of values and beliefs, and comment upon, in light of the insights offered by both theorists, the sociological origins of citizenship. Unlike Tocqueville, Weber sees an odd juxtaposition—an accentuated, ‘world mastery’ individualism and an accentuated orientation to civic sphere ideals—at the centre of the American political culture.     

The meanings of production(s): showbiz and deep plays in finance and DIYbiology

Drawing on anthropological theories of play, deep play and games, as well as sociological interaction theories of risk, this paper develops a theory of consequential games. This paper suggests that in the United States much expert or entrepreneurial activity can be seen as a competition over creating the rules of games that others must play. In turn, whatever peril lies in these consequential games is the province of the saps that have to play, and whatever reward or prize comes from the game is captured by the expert or entrepreneur. The perspective that this paper advances, in turn, renders domains of life often seen as discrete (say private equity investing and biotechnological tinkering) comparable and in fact similar types of phenomena, all caught up in the crazy apocalyptic vitality that is contemporary capitalism.     

恩格斯晚年对科学社会主义理论的重要贡献

恩格斯在马克思逝世后特别是在19世纪90年代后,丰富和发展了科学社会主义理论。这表现为他研究俄国革命运动与西方革命的关系,提出世界革命进程"四步骤"的理论;研究意大利、法国、德国的阶级关系和革命形势,提出把当前斗争和远大目标统一起来的理论;研究1848年以来无产阶级斗争的方式,形成以合法斗争积蓄力量并进行革命"决战"的理论。     

Why preferences and institutions change: A systematic process analysis of credit rating in Germany

This article argues that a within‐case analysis of the causes and patterns of the institutionalisation of rating in the German financial system offers fresh insights into change in the major socioeconomic institutions of advanced capitalism. Using the method of systematic process analysis, the article explores the expansion of credit rating in the German banking system from three perspectives: historical (power), sociological (diffusion) and behavioural institutionalism (prospect theory). It demonstrates that the proliferation of credit rating resulted from a change of preference on the part of large banks. With Germany as a least likely case for successfully implementing rating, the study's main lesson is that institutional analysis may benefit from incorporating behavioural institutionalism into the analysis of preference change because this cites economic motivations as causes of preference shifts and institutional changes.