scholarly journals The ‘duplex’ perspective as an attempt to resolve the key sociological dilemma

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 170-175
Author(s):  
I. Šulc
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Scientific Interest ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Sociological Thought

This article is a review of the books by the famous Czech sociologist, head of the Historical Sociology Chair of the Faculty for Humanities at the Charles University (Prague), Jiří Šubrt Historical Processes, Social Changes, and Modernization in the Sociological Perspective (Moscow: RUDN; 2017. 248 p.), Antinomies, Dilemmas, and Discussions in the Contemporary Sociological Thought: Essays on Social Theory (Moscow: RUDN; 2018. 280 p.), and Individualism, Holism and the Central Dilemma of Sociological Theory (Bingley: Emerald Publishig; 2019. 184 p.). All three works focus on the key sociological dilemma - individualism versus holism, which has been the main scientific interest of J. Šubrt in recent years. The relevance of this dilemma is obvious: individualism declares the subjectivity of the person, while holism insists on the objectivity of the supra-individual social reality, and this contradiction hinders the development of theoretical knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to try to resolve this contradiction, which Šubrt does by critically analyzing the previous attempts to resolve this dilemma and by considering it in the ‘duplex’ perspective that reflects both voluntarist and social principles.

Cosmopolitanism and Globality: Kant, Arendt, and Beck on the Global Condition

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Axtmann
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Intercultural Dialogue ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
Transnational Actors ◽  
Global Condition

The notion of cultural plurality and the idea of intercultural dialogue have been central to the discussion of cosmopolitanism in both political philosophy and social theory. This point is developed in an exposition of the arguments put forward by Immanuel Kant and Hannah Arendt and through a critical engagement with Ulrich Beck's social theory of cosmopolitanism as a “social reality.“ It is argued that Beck's analysis fails to convince as a sociological extension of a long philosophical tradition and that instead of Beck's macrostructural analysis it is more promising to formulate an actor-centred sociological theory on the transnationalization of social spaces and the formation of a “cosmopolitan“ consciousness or awareness of transnational actors.

scholarly journals The Application of Abductive and Retroductive Inference for the Design and Analysis of Theory-Driven Sociological Research

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha B. Meyer ◽  
Belinda Lunnay
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Heart Disease ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Stage Model ◽  
Qualitative Research Design

Abductive and retroductive inference are innovative tools of analysis which enable researchers to refine and redevelop social theory. This paper describes and demonstrates how to apply these tools to strengthen sociological theory-driven empirical research outputs. To illustrate how abductive and retroductive inference work for the benefit of enhanced qualitative analysis we present the findings of a qualitative study that investigated heart disease patients’ trust in medical professionals (n=37). We outline the research process using a six-stage model developed by Danermark et al. (1997) that will guide researchers doing exploratory research in how to use abductive and retroductive inference in qualitative research design and analysis. A snapshot of the study findings are provided for illustration purposes. The reader will learn how the application of these under-utilized methodological tools provides a novel way of analyzing sociological research.

Nationalism as a Global Institution: A Historical-Sociological View

2020 ◽  
pp. 157-176
Author(s):  
Tobias Werron
Keyword(s):  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Media System ◽  
System P ◽  
Globalization Studies ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
Sociological View

This chapter elaborates how nationalism has long been underestimated in both sociological theory and globalization studies. It mentions sociological theorists who have theorized the role of nationalism in modernity and globalization literature, and who have tended to see globalization and nationalism as being in a zero-sum relationship. It also highlights a historical-sociological perspective on the nationalism–globalization nexus, which allows nationalism to be studied as a global institution. The chapter connects recent insights into inconspicuous 'banal' forms of nationalism to insights from globalization studies. It emphasizes two types of nationalism: 'institutionalized nationalism' and 'scarcity nationalism', showing how they have been reinforced by globalization dynamics and facilitated by the emergence of a global media system.

In the shadow of sociology: Bateson through the lens of Durkheim

2020 ◽  
pp. 1468795X2094434
Author(s):  
Jørn Bjerre
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Current Mode ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Gregory Bateson ◽  
Convincing Argument ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
The One ◽  
Classical Sociology

Gregory Bateson developed his transdisciplinary thinking in the shadow of sociology, but his ideas are not generally viewed as part of the field of classical sociology. This article will explain this exclusion by arguing that Bateson’s way of theorising – while attempting to make progress in the understanding of reality – returns to ideas that were already rejected within the field in which he first worked. Furthermore, as a reading of Bateson through the lens of Durkheim will show, Bateson’s theories fail to provide a better understanding of social reality than those of his predecessors. This type of critical analysis demonstrates the weakness of some of Bateson’s central claims and contributes to a more in-depth understanding and reassessment of his ideas from a sociological perspective. Pointing out that Bateson’s critique of the modern worldview is based on a pre-critical and pre-modern philosophy of wholeness is not to invalidate Bateson’s foundational intuition that our current mode of thinking challenges our chances of surviving as a species. However, in order to make a theoretically convincing argument concerning how our thinking challenges our survival, a more critical understanding of the relation between mind and society than the one Bateson offers is required.

scholarly journals Geografía social del turismo. Una mirada crítica a la percepción del turismo y a su representación espacial

2020 ◽  
pp. 113-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Fernández-Arroyo López-Manzanares
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Spatial Representation ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Social Geography ◽  
International Level ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Production Of Space

La Geografía Social del Turismo surge de una perspectiva sociológica en la aplicación del enfoque geográfico y aproximación al turismo. La novedad del término a nivel internacional revela el escaso recorrido de la crítica y la teoría social, así como de la irreflexión geográfica en este campo de estudios. El objeto de la investigación es un espacio social del turismo, representación espacial de un conocimiento-emancipación para proyectar un cambio social, una producción del espacio al margen de la racionalidad regulada por el mercado capitalista y su pedagogía neoliberal. Social Geography of Tourism arises from a sociological perspective in the application of the geographical approach and his proximity to tourism. The originality of the term at the international level reveals the limited spread of criticism and social theory and, especially, geographical thoughtlessness in this field of studies. The object of this research is a social space of tourism, a spatial representation of a knowledge-emancipation to create a social change, a production of space outside the rationality regulated by the capitalist market and its neoliberalism pedagogy.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. xxxii-27
Author(s):  
Danna A. Levin Rojo ◽  
Cynthia Radding
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
Spatial History ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Cultural Processes ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Modes Of Life ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Broad Approach ◽  
Modern Nation State

Borderlands arise where two or more spheres of hegemony that claim jurisdiction over resources and people limit each other and often overlap, where two or more groups of people with different cultures and modes of life intermingle, and where the prevailing ecological conditions challenge particular forms of human life. Drawing on theorists from historical sociology, geography, anthropology, and spatial history, the editors and contributors to this volume understand borderlands as diffuse spaces of contestation, adaptation, and admixture that are produced through historical processes in specific times and places. Providing a broad approach to borderlands applicable to time periods predating the modern nation-state and areas not standing at the limits between two constituted polities, this perspective addresses indigenous America and the character of early Iberian empires. We advance the interrelated notions of successive frontiers and internal borderlands to address these territorial and cultural processes over time and in different continental and maritime regions.

THE CURIOUS HISTORICAL DETERMINISM OF RANDALL COLLINS

2003 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
BARBARA MISZTAL ◽  
DIETER FREUNDLIEB
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Global Theory ◽  
China And India ◽  
The Social ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Intellectual Creativity

Randall Collins' The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change (1998) examines and compares communities of intellectuals linked as networks in ancient and medieval China and India, medieval and modern Japan, ancient Greece, medieval Islam and Judaism, medieval Christendom and modern Europe. The book has been the subject of many interesting and often positive reflections (for example, European Journal of Social Theory 3 (I), 2000; Review Symposium or reviews in Sociological Theory 19 (I), March 2001). However, it has also attracted a number of critical reviews (for example, reviews in Philosophy of the Social Sciences 30 (2), June 2000). Since not many books achieve such notoriety, it is worthwhile to rethink Collins' controversial approach. The aim of this paper is to encourage further debates of notions and issues presented in Collins' book. We would like, by joining two voices—sociologist and philosopher—to reopen discussion of Collins' attempt to discover a universality of patterns of intellectual change, as we think that more interpretative rather than explanatory versions of our respective disciplines can enrich our understanding of blueprints of intellectual creativity.

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