Sociological Theory

This is Chapter 7 of our book "Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society."  It is a translation from German to English of Weber's classic essay "Politics as a Vocation."  In my view, it is one of the most important essays about the nature of politics ever written.  Included are Weber's defition of the state as a monopoloy over the use of coercive power in a given territory, different types of authority, the ethics of politicians, etc.  It is indeed a classic, which is why we went to so much trouble to translate it.

This is a pre-publication version which is not under copyright protection.  So as a result, the page numbers are different from the published version, which is distributed by Palgrave MacMillan.  If you are going to cite this essay, please go to the library and get a copy.  If your library does not have a copy, please ask them to order one!

Este artículo ofrece una perspectiva panorámica, aunque necesariamente incompleta, sobre la teorización sociológica acerca de la “comunidad”, un concepto sociológico fundamental (en sí mismo, o en el contexto del par dicotómico que integra con otro concepto, el de “sociedad”), desde los clásicos de la disciplina hasta hoy. Sacrificando profundidad para ganar a cambio amplitud y perspectiva histórica, se sobrevuela primero el pensamiento sobre la comunidad de algunos clásicos (como Ferdinand Tönnies, Max Weber y Émile Durkheim) y luego el de Talcott Parsons. Luego, de manera más detallada, se analizan las concepciones de comunidad presentes en dos autores más recientes, Michel Maffesoli y Zygmunt Bauman. Este ejercicio, por un lado, se orienta a detectar las principales metamorfosis del concepto durante casi un siglo y medio, observando en los diferentes autores sus oscilaciones entre usos tipológico- científicos, históricos y utópicopolíticos de la comunidad. Por otro lado, al final, lanza algunas preguntas acerca de la (¿inextricable?) relación entre la sociología y los compromisos normativos.

The dramatic genocide that plagued Rwanda back in 1994 is tragically known. It constituted a despicable unprecedented event that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions.. Albeit in grief and bereaved, the Rwandans weathered and overcame this tragedy by creating a unique model for achieving peace, security, reconciliation, and development. Par excellence, the Rwandan experience is of great importance for the analysis and study of disasters and crises. The lessons learned from the Rwandan experience can provide all the people concerned ample opportunity to better anticipate and forecast possible scenarios and prevent such disasters from repeating themselves in the future. It is interesting to note that relevant studies focus on a descriptive approach. It is also important to stress that most applied studies seminal to policy-making approval as well as post-assessment studies on relief and development aid programs do not pay attention to the theoretical and interpretive dimension that unravel the ambiguities in which a disaster was shrouded before, during, and after it has come true. Therefore, this study seeks to analyze and explain the root causes of Rwanda’s disaster and the causes that contributed to the the current degree of recovery and development that Rwanda has achieved so far. To achieve this goal, the researcher will use the Conflicted Rules Theory (CRT) that was published in April of 2018 in the Nile Valley Journal, Cairo University. The study revealed that ethnic conflict was triggered by the Tutsi elite group before the colonial era, gaining more impetus and intensity over the years. Against a backdrop of the then unrest, modern religious and cultural norms failed to play a vital role in mitigating such rampant conflicts as they were biased in favor of the Tutsi group. Following Rwanda’s independence, the roles changed in favor of the Hutu group which gained more power, while the Tutsi group was subjected to discrimination until this disaster unfolded. A new pattern of social transformation was emerged, forming a real break from the past, due to the association of common sense with the wise authoritarian action through integrated relationships supported by the positive effect of a charismatic leadership.

This article attempts to fill some theoretical gaps in understanding the phenomenon of status liminality as a "transition state" in the processes of social mobility of individuals and groups. Drawing on the classical ideas of A. van Gennep and V. Turner about the nature of rites de passage, as well as some relevant sociological ideas (of A. Schütz, E. Goffman, et al.), the author contributes with theoretical reconstruction of the types of status liminality, including ascending, descending, recursive, permanent liminality, as well as liminoidity. A number of features are also given to distinguish liminality from marginality and deviance: (a) transitivity i.e. liminality as a passage to the altered preliminal position and identity of an individual or group, combined with the incompleteness of the ongoing metamorphosis; (b) temporality, framing liminality with normatively fixed temporal boundaries of the transition period; (c) consequentiality, i.e. the social significance of the postliminal status transformation both for the bearer and for the society or social groups involved. Of particular importance for understanding the state of liminality is the phenomenon of “communitas” discovered by V. Turner, which represents a tendency of liminal people to depart from the “mundane domain” into anti-structural and non-structural limbo state, where the ties between people are filled with vivid affective content, and the experience gained has a profound existential effect. For each distinguished type of status liminality, examples are given from experience peculiar to traditional and modern societies using research materials in the field of sociology of death, medical sociology, criminal sociology, sociology of tourism, social psychology, etc. At the end of the work, from the liminality perspective, such novel phenomena as precariat, and morphological freedom and edgework are addressed. Finally, it is concluded that the great heuristic potential of the concept of liminality is able to make a significant contribution to the study of modern social processes and to understand structure/agency relationship within social ordering at the individual, group and societal range of analysis.

Readers and students from generations X and Y are involved in consumer culture, get part of their knowledge through popular culture and/or the internet, and are more practical than theoretical. This book on the sociology of religion straddles the intersection between consumer culture, cyber-culture and popular culture, and focuses on the need of these generations.

This book makes specific relevance to generations X and Y from the very first page. To draw the reader into a topic, each chapter begins with a case study from popular culture or the internet. This narrative device is a key approach to bringing readers and students to the heart of the problem. Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y explores sociological concepts such as secularisation and the multiple modernisation thesis, re-enchantment, the ‘McDonaldisation’ of society and the easternisation of the west, while addressing contemporary phenomenon within, for example, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, New Age, Scientology, and Witchcraft groups, both online and offline. It also addresses new religious phenomena such as the mixing of religion and popular culture on the internet as found in new groups such as Jediism and Matrixism.

While covering classical works in the field, Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y uses the writing of cutting edge theorists to understand where religion and spirituality are coming from, where they are right now, and where they might be going. It also highlights the practical relevance of this sub-discipline to readers and students by exploring what sociologists of religion do outside of the academy.

This study focuses on the history of sociology in Brazil and receptions of
European and North American sociological traditions by Brazilian sociology. The
stages and periods of development of Sociology and its institutionalization as an
academic-scientific discipline in Brazil are presented in their main features, as well
as sociology’s current situation at universities, the main fields of research of Brazilian
sociology, and the new themes and approaches that came to be proposed for
explaining and/or understanding Brazil’s social situation.
Key words: sociology in Brazil, history of sociology in Brazil.

Despite the fact that insurance is a ubiquitous core institution of modern society, a sociological theory of insurance does not yet exist. This article aims at suggesting some hypotheses which can help filling the gap. Insurance has been pertinently defined as "the archetype of modernist governance of the future". Consequently, a sociological research on insurance institution should answer three preliminary questions: First, when we talk about the future, what are we actually talking about? Second, how is it possible to govern the future in the present? Finally, what is the modernity of this modernist governance of the future, and why does insurance represent its archetype? Moving from a comparison between prudence and providence, it is suggested that insurance turns uncertainty into possibilities. In this way, the decision-maker who takes out insurance can plan for the planningness of the future-that is, whatever happens, he relies on an open future. This article suggests, eventually, that the theory of evolution is conceptually well equipped to explain why an institution that at the beginning (that is, in the late Middle Ages) was regarded as a form of deviation has become normal over time.

While fun is linked to positive engagement and inclusive community, we explore the connection between fun and cruelty, arguing that acts of aggression and humiliation can also provide pleasurable hedonic experience. In this, we extend the sociological analysis of emotions, emphasizing that emotion work that is broadly rejected can be accepted and desired within the boundaries of local culture as long as interactional commitments exist. These acts, requiring the social support that groups provide, rely on a commitment to cohesion. By examining descriptive accounts of gang activity, bullying, hooliganism, political violence, and military brutality, different in degree of hostility, but similar in rejecting norms of acceptable behavior, we formulate the concept of "dark fun." In these cases that reveal the establishment of hierarchies of power, the ability to make victims suffer establishes the authority of the group, coupled with the low probability that victims will respond in the situation. However, this rejection of consensual norms occurs in sites of emotional heating. What is deviant in the wider society reveals group belonging. To this end, we advance a meso-level theory of hedonic cruelty that draws on features of group affiliation based on collective effervescence, local commitments, and moral ordering.

A partir de uma revisão minuciosa do trabalho de Georg Simmel, pretendo
adentrar no debate que surgiu na sociologia alemã sobre o suposto
descompasso de duas linhas de pesquisa: a teoria da diferenciação e a da
desigualdade. Examinando duas modalidades de diferenciação nos textos
de Simmel – a diferenciação de papéis e a autonomização da economia
monetária –, serão mostrados em quais pontos se conectam e onde se
separam os polos de diferenciação-desigualdade. Nossa hipótese é que há
em Simmel uma interpretação do problema da estratificação social em
uma chave cultural. Neste sentido, procuramos abordar algumas possíveis
afinidades da perspectiva do sociólogo berlinense com as teorias da
estratificação de Karl Marx e Pierre Bourdieu. Tentaremos, então,
considerar como o conceito de classe social, convertido por Marx numa
ferramenta de análise sociológica inescapável até o presente, seguiu sua
trajetória na abordagem da estratificação que pode ser reconstruída a
partir da obra de Simmel

Stephen Mennell acted as General Editor for the entire series of 18 volumes published between 2006 and 2014 by University College Dublin Press (www.ucdpress.ie), on behalf of the Norbert Elias Foundation, Amsterdam. An account of the editorial policies and practices adopted for the work can be found in vol.188, pp. ix–xiv.

This list gives the basic bibliographical details of each of the volumes, including the names of the collaborating editors for each volume. A separate file contains the details contents of all the volumes. In a third document can be found a list of all the previously unpublished works by Elias that were included for the first time in the Collected Works.

Finally, The Genesis of the Naval Profession was compiled by René Moelker and edited by him and Stephen Mennell from Elias’s papers, was published as a Supplementary Volume by UCD Press.

This is a very old paper, dating from 1983 when I was actively involved in the in the long-defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the UK.  (Indeed I stood for parliament in the 1983 General Election.) Nevertheless, although it is obviously very much dated,  I think its underlying argument is still relevant, and i shall return to that in a forthcoming conference paper on 'The political implications of figurational sociology'. The pamphlet is notable for not mentioning Norbert Elias, even though his influence on it is veryu obvious; that was because he was sgtill very much alive and would not have approved of me dragging him into politics!

Die vorliegende Untersuchung fragt nach den Ursachen für das Zustandekommen des globalen Klimaschutzabkommens von Paris: Welche Ereignisse haben dazu geführt, dass die politische Staatengemeinschaft im Dezember 2015 einen Vertragstext verabschiedet hat, der von einigen Beobachtern sogar als "Wunder von Paris " bezeichnet wird? Ausgehend von einer zweiwöchigen Ethnografie auf dem Gelände des Weltklimagipfels in Frankreich wird das Verhältnis verschiedener Stakeholder auf der größten diplomatischen Versammlung der Menschheitsgeschichte genauer beleuchtet. Zur Erschließung des empirischen Materials wird ein akteurzentriertes Analysemodell entwickelt, bei dem der Zeitfaktor von zentraler Bedeutung ist ("AKSA-Modell "). Mit einer um die Kategorien der sachlichen "Kreuzung" , zeitlichen "Synchronisation" und sozialräumlichen "Arena" erweiterten Differenzierungstheorie wird das lokale Zusammenspiel zwischen ökonomischen, politischen, wissenschaftlichen, massenmedialen und religiösen Akteuren genauer in den Blick genommen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass das Pariser Klimaschutzabkommen kein politischer Alleingang war, sondern das Produkt eines gesellschaftlichen Synchronisationsprozesses.

The paper tries to develop the ideas os Durkheim and Elias departing from the problem of psychologism in sociological theory. Firstly in the moment of uprising of sociology as a scientific field, with Durkheim, and secondly, with the problems show by Norbert Elias in the first half of the XXth Century

El interes del trabajo social y la intervencion social por el analisis de redes sociales aparece en los anos 70 con la fundacion de la INSNA. El analisis de redes sociales es una aproximacion con ciertas orientaciones teoricas singulares dentro de la sociologia y una metodologia especifica, cuyas expresiones mas comunes son el analisis de redes personales y el de redes completas. El analisis de redes sociales se ha aplicado especificamente en el campo del trabajo y la intervencion social. Concretamente, esta aproximacion ha dado sus frutos en el area del apoyo social, ya se trate de apoyo social informal, institucionalizado, o mixto, pero tambien al adaptarse las herramientas del ARS a la intervencion social. Ademas, esta perspectiva es prometedora en cuanto a nuevos usos futuros para el trabajo y la intervencion social, tanto mas en la medida en que se integren mejor sus herramientas.

How can cinema be used to understand our society? Different sociologists asked throughout history this question. Generally, they assume that since all subjects act within social institutions, films necessarily tell us something about aspects of life in society. Besides, their "visual power," and their narratives, would be even able to shape our expectations in unconscious ways. That's because the “social life” is presented to us as orderly, where people accept prescribed roles that they find satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Some of them portray alienation and despair, as well as a series of ways in which people face their social conditions and the challenges that life imposes on them. In this sense, watching a film becomes a sociologically significant event as its experience affects us emotionally, psychologically, and pedagogically. Based on this, the paper aims to discuss some sociological perspectives on the relationship between art, cinema, and society.

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.

Sociological Theory: Uses and Unities (London: Thomas Nelson, 1974) was Stephen Mennell’s first book, and became a standard undergraduate textbook on theory in many universities. A revised edition appeared in 1980, but that, says Mennell, was a mistake: ‘I wanted to include some new and more recent material, but in order to do so I deleted some important sections from the first edition, under the impression that some issues had been resolved and superseded. I should have known better: sociological theory goes round in circles rather than progressing!'

This article brings together labour relations, sociological and political perspectives on precarious employment in Australia, identifying local contexts of insecurity and setting them within the economics of regional supply chains involving the use of migrant labour. In developing the concept of precarious work-societies, it argues that precarity is a source of individual and social vulnerability and distress, affecting family, housing and communal security. The concept of depoliticisation is used to describe the processes of displacement, whereby the social consequences of precarious work come to be seen as beyond the reach of agency. Using evidence from social attitudes surveys, we explore links between the resulting sense of political marginalisation and hostility to immigrants. Re-politicisation strategies will need to lay bare the common basis of shared experiences of insecurity and explore ways of integrating precarious workers into new community and global alliances. JEL Codes: A13; J15; J61; M54

Desde Talcott Parsons, a teoria sobre os meios simbolicamente generelizados ocupa um lugar especial na análise sociológica. Suas derivações em Niklas Luhmann e Jügen Habermas têm conseguido manter, por mais de quarenta anos, as reflexões em relação à diferenciação da sociedade e sua evolução (CHERNILO, 2002). Luhmann, diferentemente de Parsons e Habermas, modifica a teoria dos meios e os considera como “meios de comunicação” que, diante da autopossibilidade de uma negação da comunicação, possibilitam sua aceitação. Desta maneira, a abordagem de Luhmann não pretende responder a pergunta sobre “como é possível a ordem social”, que habitualmente era respondida a partir de condições normativas (LUHMANN, 2011). Ao contrário, o autor opta por considerar a pergunta a partir de uma abordagem que levasse em consideração meios de comunicação simbolicamente generalizados . Assim, Luhmann converte tal questionamento em uma pergunta de caráter teórico, considerando os MCSG como equivalentes funcionais da moral que, dada a evolução, tem conseguido estabilizar-se e condicionar as possibilidades de aceitação/rejeição da comunicação (LUHMANN, 2007, p. 246).
A teoria dos meios propicia, portanto, avanços para o estudo tanto da diferenciação, quanto da função do dinheiro, por exemplo, do amor, do poder e do direito, dentre os outros. A sociologia, ao longo de sua história, tem reiterado a importância fundamental das mudanças que a modernidade tem produzido (BOTTOMORE; NISBET, 1988; GIDDENS, 1994), sendo possível associar os avanços da teoria dos sistemas e sua observação sobre os meios aos problemas de inclusão e de exclusão social contemporâneos (CADENAS, 2012). A hipótese aqui defendida consiste na ideia de que o princípio da não conversibilidade dos meios permite estudar a desigualdade social, entendida como estruturas de distribuição que geram conversibilidade secundária dos meios.  Desta forma, fenômenos tão massificados na sociedade latino-americana como a corrupção e a coerção (MASCAREÑO, 2011), podem ser observados à luz dos desenvolvimentos teóricos mencionados, com resultados frutíferos para a análise da desigualdade social.
A partir do exposto, o presente capítulo propõe-se a: a) apresentar a teoria da comunicação, a partir de um enfoque sistêmico e de sua relação com o problema da dupla contingência; b) discutir a função dos meios de comunicação simbolicamente genereralizados para a resolução do problema da dupla contingência; c) refletir sobre a relação do problema da dupla contingência com a questão codificação/programação dos sistemas funcionais; d) refletir sobre a possibilidade de novas linhas de investigação sobre a questão da desigualdade social a partir da teoria exposta.

Peer reviewed and published quarterly, Thesis Eleven (Thesis 11, Sage Publishing) is a multidisciplinary journal that reaches across the social sciences (sociology, anthropology, philosophy, geography, cultural studies, literature and politics) and cultivates diverse critical theories of modernity. Reflecting the broad scope of social theory it encourages civilizational analysis on a wide range of alternative modernities and explores critical theory from the margins of the world system to its centre.

Anthropologists, indeed, regard woman as intermediate in development between the child and the man. (Thomas 1897: 40) [D]ifference in natural ability is, in the main, a characteristic of the individual, not of race or of sex. (Thomas 1907: 438) In this article, I would like to trace William I. Thomas's changing views on the explanatory role of biology for sociology and social psychology. From the beginning, Thomas studied numerous subjects that involved both biological and sociological factors. He wrote on the nature of the sexes, race, instincts, prejudices, and evolution. As I will attempt to show, his starting point was the simple biologism with which he was familiar and which consisted mainly in transferring the theoretical structures of biology to sociology. Obviously, this understanding of biologism is completely obsolete today. Yet his view of biology's role subsequently began to shift towards what is currently the most popular approach, involving the assimilation of data interpreted in strictly sociological theoretical categories. This article is not a holistic review of Thomas's work in terms of his beliefs about the role of biology but rather describes a key moment in the qualitative change of approach that took place in the first years of the twentieth century. I will start with a brief outline of the biological topics that most affected sociology as it emerged and of modern methods of combining biology and sociology. Next, I will compare the earlier and later role of biology in Thomas's sociology.

This article explores aunthood as a morally charged category. By conducting a thematic analysis, we analyse advice-seeking posts published in Dear Savvy Auntie, an American online advice forum for aunts. We examine the moral tales of aunthood and particularly why some aunts might feel that they cannot openly articulate their sense of responsibility within the family context, and the consequences of this. This leads us to assert that one way of 'doing' moral aunthood can be a form of non-doing, and allows us to examine how aunthood is done and displayed in ways which are often hidden and unacknowledged. We suggest that caution, avoidance and self-restraint may be routine aspects of displaying aunthood and of working out family responsibilities and family obligations.

Los principales elementos de la Teoría de la Estructuración de Anthony Giddens, se extraen de su texto "La constitución de la sociedad: Bases para la teoría de la estructuración" publicada en 1984. La Teoría de la Estructuración debe ser entendida como un intento por comprender cómo, por una parte, los individuos, actores o-como prefiere llamarlos el mismo autor-los agentes sociales "internalizan" las pautas estructurales que orientan la acción social y cómo, por otra parte, éstos modifican y cambian lo que se encuentra establecido generando nuevas formas de comportamiento y acción social. Esto es lo que se conoce como "dualidad de la estructura", lo cual quiere decir que los agentes sociales por un lado reproducen la estructura, pero también tienden progresivamente a producirla, generando cambios y adaptaciones. Este sería un proceso continuo desde el orden establecido, adecuado a leyes, normas, valores, instituciones, etc., las cuales se naturalizan a medida que son internalizadas. Esto constituiría una mera adaptación, una integración orientada por lo que ya existe, por un legado histórico y cultural que entrega identidad y sentido a los agentes y a la acción social, respectivamente. Estos procesos se llevan a cabo mediante la educación, por ejemplo, cuando desde la primera infancia nos inculcan a formar y amar a una patria con héroes nacionales, himnos, bandera y otros símbolos patrios. Esto nos hace ciudadanos y acatar las normas establecidas, nos lleva a ser efectivos en este cometido. No obstante, no todo obedece a esta modalidad, no todo sería ajustarse a lo ya dado y aceptarlo sin modificación alguna. De hecho cabe preguntarse ¿cómo es que existe el orden actual? ¿Se generó espontáneamente?, ¿lo creó Dios?, ¿de dónde provienen instituciones como el Estado o el mercado?, etc. Para Giddens, lo que se conoce como sistema, no es más que la expresión abstracta de una serie de acciones generadas por un grupo de individuos en un espacio y contexto determinado y por un periodo de tiempo relativamente estable. La instituciones sociales que hoy en día existen y que orientan la acción de cualquier individuo son el producto de acciones concretas y específicas que en algún momento, producto de su eficacia en términos de dar sentido a la acción, fueron replicadas una y otra vez y reproducidas por un número mayor de personas. Así pasamos a lo que se conoce como proceso de "iteración", o más bien, "rutinización" en la medida que la acción social repetitiva conlleva el establecimiento de instituciones sociales relativamente estables en el tiempo. La legitimidad de estas instituciones, su credibilidad, hace que los individuos crean en ellas y, por tanto, actúen de acuerdo a sus orientaciones. No obstante, en la medida en que el autor releva el hecho de que los individuos son seres conscientes y no meras marionetas que se dejan manipular por lo existente, (de ahí el concepto de agentes sociales capaces de comprender y modificar una realidad existente), éstos actuarían de un modo discrecional ajustando lo establecido de acuerdo a sus propios criterios, de acuerdo a sus propios gustos, a sus particularidades y esto, generaría que en determinada forma contribuyan

El presente artículo revisa la teoría de la evolución
histórica de Carl Schmitt, usando como hilo conductor
sus escritos sobre el concepto de nomos. En ellos se
distinguen los estadios históricos por un modo
específico de ordenar el territorio y un particular
imaginario colectivo sobre el espacio, elementos que
tienen consecuencias jurídicas, políticas y militares. En
base a ese esquema, se revisa la «gran revolución
espacial» que Schmitt situó en los siglos XVI y XVII.
Luego se discuten las particularidades del estadio
histórico contemporáneo, iniciado según el autor en el
siglo XX, pero difusamente caracterizado a lo largo de
su obra. Se postula que, para Schmitt, la etapa actual
de la historia universal es identificada principalmente
por la apropiación de grandes terrenos industriales y
una comprensión del espacio como campo de fuerzas
en donde la humanidad despliega su energía,
actividad y esfuerzo.