Classical and Contemporary Social Theory

Post-modern theology is highly suspicious of social theory and its secular origins. After all, the founder who gave us the word “sociology” also coined the term “positivism.” An alternative strategy is that of Bernard Lonergan, a theologian with a highly developed sociological imagination. He was quite aware of the secularity but devoted a life-time in trying to think through some of the key issues. His was a mind on the move and perhaps it is not surprising that his contribution has yet to be assimilated.
In this paper I shall take a look at a key text from Lonergan’s magnum opus, Insight. I will suggest that, in a sense, this may be regarded as “social physics” (another phrase from Auguste Comte). As we shall see, Lonergan’s thought wrestled with many issues of concern to the other founders of sociology: Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber, but his vision is quite original, and in fact, he will draw on Arnold J. Toynbee.
I do not believe Lonergan’s work is beyond criticism—as his later developments suggest—so I will try to identify some difficulties by examining closely some of those later changes. Before offering my appraisal, then, I will look at Lonergan’s social theory from five periods. First, I shall simply record his interest in the 1930s by referring to some work he retained in a file but never published. Then I shall give a more careful exposition of a chapter written in the early 1950s. I will suggest that Lonergan’s deployment of mathematical analogies to understand social theory underwent some changes and so I will look at that transition in the 1960s. I will then be able to take a glance at the new way Lonergan presented his ideas in Method in Theology (1972) and go on to sample a few developments in the last decade up to 1980. In my appraisal we will be able to see some of the strengths and weaknesses Lonergan encountered in his project of social physics and perhaps make a small increase to the stock of ideas myself.

Glocal Spirituality:  Consumerism and Heritage in Puerto Rican Brujería
With the recent intensification of the circulation of ritual experts and commodities, folk religions such as Puerto Rican brujería (witch-healing) have entered a transnational arena of ritual experimentation and eclecticism. Concomitantly, the politics of identity, operating at local-political and global-commercial stages, propel the search for origins and the production of essential identities, leading to the revitalization and orthodoxy of folk religions as well as their folklorization, following a local—though globally pervasive—heritage discourse.  Why glocal spirituality? My main argument is that both these forces—the actual insertion into global circulations that promote a high degree of ritual eclecticism and the local demand for an essential Puerto Rican national identity that promote orthodoxy—work in tandem creating a complex set of conditions for ritual practice and meaning.
How can these apparently contradictory processes be theorized within folklore studies? From a historic-pragmatic perspective to ritual and through an intimate ethnographic account that traces the encounters between practitioners, clients and suppliers of ritual goods, I will show how these two processes work in tandem. That is, without an a-priori public recognition of brujos (witch-healers) as repositories of Puerto Rican wisdom (in the context of the unresolved neocolonial political status of the island), the fame and celebrity that enabled the open incorporation of African based rituals, of bureaucratic gestures and interventions, and transnational religious commodities could not have been viable. Critics of the culture industry and consumerism tend to suggest that commercial forces inherently taint the authenticity of culture, and in this case would taint the spiritual effectiveness of brujería. For practitioners and clients, however, material and spiritual progress not only are not at odds but also are intimately connected. Indeed, practitioners are driven by the attainment of “blessings”—defined by material success as well as spiritual power—which presume the spirituality of commodities and the thinghood of spirituality. Especially in a world guided by capitalist modes of production and the sensuous insatiable consumption of life styles and self-images, brujos and their clients take advantage of the opportunities opened up by multiculturalism and identity politics. They openly expand the pantheon of spirits as well as their ritual expertise, protected by the idiom of heritage—yet outside of its constraints, showing that more than endangered species they are active participants in these glocal forces, speaking to them in their own particular modern yet spiritual idiom.

The concept of the gentleman amateur was, and remains, an important aspect of upper and middle-class Victorian and Edwardian male identity. Although he remains a significant literary presence, the form and length of time the gentleman amateur remained a cultural influence in society is contested.                                                     

This article examines one realm of this social constructs influence - sport - in terms of the social and philosophical origins of these titles, what they meant in practice and the repercussions their use had on class cultures, British (English) sporting values and success. It proposes that the gentleman amateur - despite the long-term damage inflicted by such men - remains a major philosophical, ideological and physical influence upon British sport today.

Kendini üniversitedeki bilim yaşamına profesyonel olarak adamaya karar vermiş bir lisansüstü öğrencisinin geleceği nedir? Almanya'daki koşulların özelliğini anlamak için, karşılaştırma yöntemiyle ilerlemek, dışarıdaki koşulları tanımakta yarar var.

Il potenziale critico fondamentale delle scienze storiche risiede nel poter includere nella ricerca idee e punti di vista che rischierebbero altrimenti di esserne esclusi. Nell'ambito specifico che interessa questo articolo, quello dello studio della percezione della natura selvaggia e della montagna da parte delle élites europee tra età moderna e età contemporanea, si deve constatare che l'analisi del discorso alpino si è basata perlopiù su opere redatte in contesti culturali esterni a tali regioni, sulla scia dell'influenza dei grandi classici della letteratura "alpina" (da von Haller a Rousseau). Si è invece trascurato il polo "periferico" del dialogo, e cioè la reazione, l'eco interna dell'élite locale rispetto a rappresentazioni, a immagini della montagna e dei loro abitanti, diffuse in questi scritti. Per completare questa prospettiva, occorrerebbe invece considerare il discorso sulle Alpi come il risultato di un processo dialettico, nel quale anche il polo "interno" alpino poteva giocare un ruolo 2 .

Working beyond the inclination to inaugurate alternative theoretical traditions alongside canonical sociology, this article demonstrates the value of recovering latent gender theory from within classic concepts-in this case, Weber's "charisma." Close readings of Weber reveal, (a) tools for theorizing extraordinary, non-masculinist agency, and, (b) clues that account for the conventional wisdom (popular and scholastic) that charisma is "not for women." While contemporary movements may be tempted to eschew charismatic leadership per se because of legacies of dominance by men, there is value in Weber's formulation, which anticipated the performative turn in social theory that would destabilize biologistic gender ontologies. Value in this exchange also flows back to Weber: by confronting his intermittent tendency to describe charisma in terms that we now recognize as "customs of manly power," we reveal heretofore unseen imperfections (i.e., traditionalist modes of legitimation) in his ideal-type. This engagement thus demonstrates an empowering mutuality between contemporary gender theory and "the classics." The article ends by theorising the nexus of gender and charisma in the case of Trump, pointing to possibilities for vitiating Donald Trump's charisma, as well as for anti-Trumpian charisma.

The chapter deals with the theories of Durkheim, Marx and Weber on education as a social institution. The texts sets the task to answer two questions: in what way the aforementioned classical sociologists approached education? What are the most important aspects of their approaches that were decisive for the founding the discipline of sociology of education?

Esej jest wprowadzeniem w polskie wydanie książki Hartmuta Rosy "Przyspieszenie, wyobcowanie, rezonans. Projekt krytycznej teorii późnonowoczesnej czasowości" – pierwszej książki Rosy wydanej w języku polskim. Jako że stanowi ona jednocześnie przystępne wprowadzenie w rozwijaną od dwóch dekad teorię i jej kluczowe pojęcia, przekład otwiera wreszcie możliwość polskiej recepcji twórczości tego socjologa. Niniejsze tłumaczenie bazuje na przeredagowanym niemieckim wydaniu (2013) popularnonaukowego eseju pt. "Acceleration and Alienation. Towards a Critical Theory of Late-modern Temporality" (2010). Publikacją tą autor podsumowywał wiele lat badań nad zjawiskiem przyspieszenia i jego wpływu na życie indywidualne oraz wspólnotowe.

"Postface au rapport:
La gestion de la diversité ethnique dans les armées. Le cas du Royaume-Uni, des Etats-Unis, de la Belgique et des Pays-Bas, par Anaïs Reding, Matt Bassford, Claire Celia, Kristin Weed, Emmanuel Hassan (Rand Europe), 2012"

There has been a continuous attack on education, particularly alternative, progressive, democratic and liberatory forms of education that seek social justice and an equality of opportunity for all to develop.  In the UK this has led to an attack on educators as 'the enemies of promise' by the Secretary of State for Education.  However, what is being proposed by policy makers are the old 'know your station in life' strategies of managing inequality.  These have always resulted in a violation of the intelligence of people.

...one day you set foot in someone else's country and your world turned upside down. These people were *weird*, really off the wall. The neighbours back home might be slack, but at least you could talk to them. In this new place, it was, well, eerie. A bit dangerous too. You were 100% outnumbered, and they called you a foreigner. You kept a low profile, and sort of adapted. Maybe you changed a bit too. After living on Mars for a few years, when you went home for a holiday the old family reckoned you'd gone native. Well, come to think of it, *they* looked sort of silly now...

This paper provides a conceptual augmentation of the notion of responsibility offered by Roth. This augmentation is predicated on the idea that Being is grounded in actions (or answerable deeds) that contribute to the unfolding collective sociocultural practices stretching from the past to the present and carrying the past in them while also incurring changes for the future. To advance this position, I consider a merger of Bakhtin's and Vygotsky's ideas that allows for a productive integration of the ethical (the 'ought') into the most basic description of human development and learning.

This book explores the relationship between knowledge and the body through a series of historical and archaeological case studies. More specifically, it considers the concept of embodied knowledge by exploring some of the apparent diverse and yet shared forms of what may be called embodied knowledge. The papers share a focus on knowledge as it is implicit and expressed through the human body and bodily action, and as it formed through intentional practices. But what is this kind of knowledge? Using specific case studies of knowledgeable actions, the book explores embodied knowledge through a focus on practice. It does so through two different, yet interconnected aspects of how such knowledge expresses itself: belief and technology.

Dieses Kapitel zielt auf Demokratie aus einer gesellschaftstheoretischen Perspektive. Im Fokus stehen - exemplarisch für frühe, entwickelte und späte Moderne - die Denker*innen Tocqueville, Arendt und Rancière. Dabei werden systematisierend Vergleichsebenen (bevorzugter Demokratietyp, Totalitarismusbegriff, normative Grundkategorie, Fortschrittsverständnis und Revolutionsbegriff) und verbindende Diagnosen (wie etwa explizit oder avant la lettre zur Postdemokratie) herausgearbeitet.

Power is often taken to be a central concept in social and political thought that can contribute to the explanation of many different social phenomena. This article argues that in order to play this role, a general theory of power is required to identify a stable causal capacity, one that does not depend on idiosyncratic social conditions and can thus exert its characteristic influence in a wide range of cases. It considers three promising strategies for such a theory, which ground power in (1) the ability to use force, (2) access to resources, or (3) collective acceptance. It shows that these strategies fail to identify a stable causal capacity. The lack of an adequate general theory of power suggests that the concept lacks the necessary unity to play the broad explanatory role it is often accorded.

Este trabajo –parafraseando a Descartes- es un discurso sobre el método y la necesidad de reposicionar el sujeto en el proceso de construcción de conocimiento. Para ello nos proponemos esbozar algunas consideraciones que esperamos sirvan como disparadores para abrir horizontes de un debate urgente. Con este objetivo planteamos el documento en tres ámbitos que procuran articularse: El primero llama la atención sobre la necesidad de pensar el método en tanto postura y su relación con lo que podemos llamar la “subjetividad epistémica”. El segundo avanza en esta perspectiva con la intensión de presentar algunas reflexiones sobre la construcción de los objetos de estudios, específicamente de los sujetos sociales qua objetos y algunos procesos metodológicos involucrados. Finalmente exponemos el esqueleto metodológico de una investigación realizada sobre el Movimiento de Desocupados en Argentina.

This article discusses the transformation of the Moroccan state under contemporary neoliberal globalization, and considers what this transition means for the ways in which scholars view state-society interplay in Morocco and the Arab world more generally. Specifically, it examines the protest of unemployed graduates in Morocco, suggesting that public demonstrations are not only a means to communicate and mobilize demands, but also a technology to reclaim and reproduce a particular “truth” in public. This truth does not necessarily equate with the reality of the neoliberal state as a dispersed material force. As such, by looking at the case of Morocco, we hope to instigate further debate on the nature of the state and its specific relation to phenomena as globalization, society and social protest.

This project builds on James' Scott synthesis of “reactive statelessness” theory (famously beginning with Pierre Clastres), in which he argues that pastoralism, nomadism, and foraging were often secondary forms of adaptation in response to the coercive forces of agrarian states (Scott, 2009).

“[The] argument reverses much received wisdom about “primitivism” generally. Pastoralism, foraging, shifting cultivation, and segmentary lineage systems are often a “secondary adaptation,” a kind of “self-barbarianization” adopted by peoples whose location, subsistence, and social structure are adapted to state evasion. For those living in the shadow of states, such evasion is also perfectly compatible with derivative, imitative, and parasitic state forms in the hills. (Scott, 2000, pX)”

My contention is that new foraging and nomadic livelihoods are on the rise  in the wake of global neoliberalism and the transnational corporatization of power on the one hand, and the techno-militarization of States on the other. These need to be examined and contrasted with studies of the new forms of alienation that are also arising among the world's “middle” and “affluent” classes. There is nothing new here, of course (see David Graeber on the past 5000 years), except for a question of scale.

I argue that the world's old and new foragers have a lot to teach us about sustainable knowledge and livelihoods, socio-political organization, and ecological justice.

The aim of this research effort, then, is to gather ethnographic and empirical data to support the claim that there are strong overall benefits (social, political, ecological, epidemiological, etc.) to foraging lifestyles.

A word of warning, of course, about using  “foraging” as an ideological, atemporal, naturalized category. 19th and 20th century science and anthropology have produced too much of that.
My use of the term is heuristic. Tim Ingold's critique of narrow extrapolations of Optimal Foraging Theory and rational choice in biology, economics, and anthropology is a good starting point for this discussion (see Ingold, 2000; see also Barnard, 1983; 2004, or anything by Richard Lee). Following Ingold and others (see bibliography below), I focus on a few broad aspects of livelihood that can be loosely characterized as foraging, and contrasted to the increasingly standardized systems of “modernity”.

An emphasis on autonomy, immediacy, and sharing at the level of social organization; autonomy being defined as relational—in contrast to the self-contained, self-interested 'rational' individual of modern societal constructs (Ingold, 2004); relationality being forged through decentralized, established or emerging relationships among humans and non-humans in a non-finite, complex, and dynamic field of operation.
Knowledge derived and kept alive from (not just of) the environment (“natural” or not); collaborative knowledge established through the “fine-tuning” of  these “relational contexts” between humans and the world (Ingold, 2000);
Perceptual and relational involvement with the world through open-ended wayfinding, or wayfaring practices, in contrast to grid-and-point, goal-and-destination oriented navigation and cartography (Ingold, 2000; 2007).

While we must be cautious about using modern constructs like “equality” (e.g., in terms of “gender” or “poverty”--Karen Endicot (2004) has a good review of debates on gender equality among foragers), the emphasis on relational autonomy must include more-or-less conscious efforts to avoid coercion and alienation. This usually entails knowledge of more coercive systems (e.g., agrarian, industrial, militaristic, etc.), and the “reactive” adaptive efforts to “vote with one's feet” (Lee, 2004), or “take to the hills” (Scott, 2009).

“Traditional Ecological Knowledge” is not a model to be put in a powerpoint pie-chart! The point here is to look for anti-model forms of wayfaring knowledge and social organization that are constantly renegotiated in adaptive contexts.  The Inuit Elders Saullu Nakasuk, Hervé Paniaq, Elisapee Ootoova, and Pauloosie Angmaalik put it best in their group interviews with anthropologists Jarich Oosten & Frédéric Laugrand:

“Traditional knowledge is not static and not something abstract and separated from the context in which it is produced, but is always related to the present. In this respect, it contrasts with the modern education system, which sets great value on the absorption of objectified knowledge”. (Aupilarjuk  et al, 2002, p3, emphasis added)

Middle-class progressives in the early 20th Century wanted to transform a corrupt and chaotic industrial America into an "authentic" democracy. But they were led astray by their privilege. Focused on enhancing the voices of individuals, generations of progressives remained blind to the rich culture of "democratic solidarity" infusing labor unions and organizing in poor communities. This book traces the problematic evolution of progressive democracy in America, focusing on schools as a key site of progressive practice. At the same time, it examines alternative strategies for developing more empowering approaches to democratic education and collective action.

This is our first translation of Max Weber's "Class, Status, Party."  It was published in the Journal of Classical Sociology in 2010.  We are quite proud of the translation, and believe that it is better than earlier versions.  However, we have since modified it and published a better version in our book "Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society" (2015), from Palgrave.

This course is designed to introduce graduate students a broad introduction to the history of classical sociological thought. Students are going to learn and discuss not only the essential scholars and their theories but also epistemological and ontological grounds that shaped the discipline of sociology. The class will focus on some of the founding thinkers and sociologists not only from the Western tradition but also from the Islamic tradition such as Al-Mawardi (d. 1058), Ibn Bajja (d. 1138), Ibn Tufail (1185), Kınalızade Ali Çelebi (d. 1572), Saint-Simon (d. 1825), A. Comte (1857), H. Martineau (d. 1876), Karl Marx (d. 1883), E. Durkheim (d. 1917), G. Simmel (d. 1918), M. Weber (1920), and T. Parsons (1979) in a comparative way. Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) is not going to be covered in this class because students who are taking this class are having another mandatory graduate course on Ibn Khaldun at the same time in this semester.

In this course, students will learn and analyze how these thinkers and sociologists made great contributions in the historical context and played important roles in the histories of sociology in different parts of the world. In other words, this course “explore possibilities in thinking about the classics’ legacy in a manner that contextualizes, provincializes and pluralizes a powerful metanarrative that shapes the discipline of sociology” (Curato, 2013: 274). Here, there is need to emphasize that there is no single history of the discipline of sociology and sociological thought which has diverse epistemological and ontological traditions in various civilizations. In this course, students are expected to become familiar with leading and founding theorists, sociologists and their thoughts through some of their primary/selected texts in order to be able to gain a more comprehensive understanding of social and cultural phenomena. This course will help students to start to develop their skills for a deeper understanding of social world and critical thinking by utilizing sociological theories.

The competing theories of state recognition and their failings actively demonstrate that recognition of a state does not have any normative content per se, but rather, that the rules of state recognition, although legal rules, are legal vehicles for political choices. We have the dilemma of concurrently wanting the right cases to result in independent states while prohibiting the wrong ones from becoming so, and so we sail between political choices, using the language of law. The state is neither truly free to recognize another entity nor entirely bound. Differing cases require different legal criteria and different legal results. This flexibility in state recognition theory though, while depriving the act of any inherent legal meaning, has value in its utility for establishing lawful relationships.

This paper will argue that the reason we find it difficult to resolve the controversy over state recognition theory is because the international legal system translates political controversies into legal questions that can then be addressed through legal means. Legal actors, by announcing preference for one side of the question, often reveal certain legal and moral choices they are making about the nature of the state and the legitimacy of the international legal system - law and politics. In the area of state recognition, no theory of recognition has extinguished competition because no political choice has gained universal acceptance. The predominant political choice is most frequently deliberate indeterminacy, a co-existence of mutually opposing arguments. This indeterminacy is most likely deliberate because it permits the underlying rationale for the legal actor’s policies to change and evolve to suit the situation.

Karl Marx like everyone understood and believed that religion serves a purpose and function in a society, but he did not agree with the basis of that purpose or function. Karl Marx experienced a hard time believing in unseen truths and the basis of his argument was that humans should be led by reason; the fact that religion is faith based and its teachings were thought to be true he argued that religion was masking the truth and misguiding believers. For Marx the society should be seen as two classes: The rich and the poor. He argues that the social class structure is set out to allow the wealthy to control all elements of production and to become wealthier off the labor of the working class. Karl Marx believes that in modern society religion plays a more divisive role rather than an integrating role, he argues that it promotes class oppression, social stratification and supports hierarchy of people on earth because he believes religion gives false hope and comfort to the poor to find comfort in their poverty and need and to give in to being controlled by the rich. Karl Marx believed that in order for religion to be relevant and to effectively discharge its duties and responsibilities as an integrative force in society due to its power of shaping collective beliefs, important steps must be undertaken to control the socio-psychological effects of religion.

Se trata del trabajo introductorio al libro del cual fui compilador, que se adentra en reflexiones acerca del problema de la comunidad a través de diferentes momentos de la historia de la teoría sociológica, desde los aportes de los clásicos hasta autores más recientes. Este capítulo explica la inscripción del libro dentro del campo de la teoría sociológica, recupera las preguntas fundamentales que dieron origen a las diversas contribuciones del libro, describe los diferentes registros de comunidad que se han tenido en cuenta y anticipa la estructura del libro así como los contenidos fundamentales de todos los capítulos que lo componen. Asimismo, describe el contexto institucional en el que se ha producido el libro, y especifica las características del grupo de investigación que ha trabajado en su producción.

This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

My nine-year-old son, .feremy, once told me that when he grows up and becomes a doctor, he wants to use the money he makes to promote anarchism. Naturally, I replied that this was a wonderful aspiration, especially since so few doctors that I know devote their considerable incomes to such noble causes.

This revised and truncated article is meant to serve as a survey and reference for further inquiry, the original source article is accessible in its entirety online ; the focal points herein are (1) racialization of drug addiction and criminality, (2) neurobiology and psychodynamics of addiction, (3) diversification of treatment options and informed consent in healthcare, (4) the social pattern of substance addiction, and transnational dimensions of the War on Drugs. Foremost (1), a corpus delicti to evince that the War on Drugs was designed to control minority communities is analyzed and synthesized in what Cornel West calls, ‚the secular bible of a new social movement;‛ The New Jim Crow by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer Michelle Alexander (2010). Associate professor of law Geneva Brown (2010) writes on the detriment to Black families, and particularly, the perceptions and perspectives of African American women: To deliver up bodies destined for profitable punishment, the political economy of [the prisonindustrial-complex] relies on racialized assumptions of criminality -such as images of black welfare mothers reproducing criminal children -and on racist practices in arrest, conviction, and sentencing patterns. (p. 1) Next at hand (2), addiction formation is thought to involve the complex interaction of genetics, environmental and developmental factors, neurobiological mechanisms, and socialized deviancy. A detailed synopsis is explicated by addiction specialist Gabor Maté, MD in his must read book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (2010, pp. 148-183). Dr. Maté works at the Portland Hotel, a safe injection site in Vancouver, B.C.'s downtown lower eastside.