The Social Theory of Anthony Giddens: A New Syncretism?

1982 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Hirst
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Anthony Giddens

Complex societies and social theory

1998 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrián Scribano
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Identity Transformation ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Anthony Giddens

A central issue in the social sciences today is the analysis of complex society, and topics like globalization, identity and self-identity, transformation of self and collective action become more and more important in social theory. This article intends to show (a) how the diagnosis of complexity affects the constitution of the topics at the heart of social theory and (b) what its major implications are from a theoretical and epistemic standpoint. Alberto Melucci and Anthony Giddens being among the most representative social scientists in this field, I examine each one's approaches and argue that we are in the presence of an “existential turn” in social theory.

Reflexive Traditions: Anthony Giddens, High Modernity, and the Contours of Contemporary Religiosity

1993 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip A. Mellor
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Potential Value ◽  
The Social ◽  
Anthony Giddens ◽  
Contemporary Religion

The following discussion is an attempt to make an initial assessment of the value to Religious Studies of certain aspects of the social theory of Anthony Giddens. I suggest that debates centred on the nature of ‘high’ or ‘late’ modernity have substantial implications for the study of contemporary religion. The theoretical work of Giddens encourages us to reconsider the nature of ‘tradition’ as it is expressed and deployed in modern religious contexts. He notes the centrality of ‘reflexivity’ in modernity and suggests that traditions which have passed through the reflexive filterings and critical questions of modernity should be called ‘sham traditions’. In the following discussion I explore this argument, and outline the potential value of a great deal of it to the scholar of contemporary religion. Nevertheless, I also suggest that we should talk not of ‘sham’ traditions but merely of ‘reflexive’ ones. I argue that the incorporation of modern reflexivity into religious traditions does not mean that they become false representations of traditions which have, in actuality, been discarded. On the contrary, I suggest that reflexive traditions can provide new, dynamic forms for the expression and development of religion within the context of high modernity. In the course of this discussion, I hope to establish the value of the term ‘reflexive traditions’ for scholars of modern religion.

Christ Existing as Community

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mawson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Human Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theological Study ◽  
Sanctorum Communio ◽  
The Church

How can theologians recognize the church as a historical and human community, while still holding that it has been established by Christ and is a work of the Spirit? How can a theological account of the church draw insights and concepts from the social sciences, without Christian commitments and claims about the church being undermined or displaced? In 1927, the 21-year-old Dietrich Bonhoeffer defended his licentiate dissertation, Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church. This remains his most neglected and misunderstood work. Christ Existing as Community thus retrieves and analyses Bonhoeffer’s engagement with social theory and attempt at ecclesiology. Against standard readings and criticisms of this work, Mawson demonstrates that it contains a rich and nuanced approach to the church, one which displays many of Bonhoeffer’s key influences—especially Luther, Hegel, Troeltsch, and Barth—while being distinctive in its own right. In particular, Mawson argues that Sanctorum Communio’s theology is built around a complex dialectic of creation, sin, and reconciliation. On this basis, he contends that Bonhoeffer’s dissertation has ongoing significance for work in theology and Christian ethics.

Feudal Europe, 800–1300: communal discourse and conflictual practices

1992 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Science ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Structural Theory ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Fundamental Significance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Scientific Argument

The discipline of international relations faces a new debate of fundamental significance. After the realist challenge to the pervasive idealism of the interwar years and the social scientific argument against realism in the late 1950s, it is now the turn of critical theorists to dispute the established paradigms of international politics, having been remarkably successful in several other fields of social inquiry. In essence, critical theorists claim that all social reality is subject to historical change, that a normative discourse of understandings and values entails corresponding practices, and that social theory must include interpretation and dialectical critique. In international relations, this approach particularly critiques the ahistorical, scientific, and materialist conceptions offered by neorealists. Traditional realists, by contrast, find a little more sympathy in the eyes of critical theorists because they join them in their rejection of social science and structural theory. With regard to liberal institutionalism, critical theorists are naturally sympathetic to its communitarian component while castigating its utilitarian strand as the accomplice of neorealism. Overall, the advent of critical theory will thus focus the field of international relations on its “interparadigm debate” with neorealism.

scholarly journals The Social Theory of Jacques Maritain

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 155-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Q. Mclnerny ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Jacques Maritain ◽  
The Social

The Imposter as Social Theory

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Forms

Edited by expert scholars, this volume explores the 'imposter' through empirical cases, including click farms, bikers, business leaders and fraudulent scientists, providing insights into the social relations and cultural forms from which they emerge.

Literacy and civilization

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 155 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-90
Author(s):  
Peter Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Book Culture

The article reviews the social theory of Harry Redner with particular reference to his view of the relationship between high literacy (book culture) and civilization. The question is posed whether, alongside book culture, an axial-type metaphysical culture is also key to the definition of civilization.

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