Individualism, Holism and the Central Dilemma of Sociological Theory

Individualism, Holism and the Central Dilemma of Sociological Theory PDF

Author: Jiří Šubrt

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2019-05-13

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1787690393

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This book examines individualism and holism, the two interpretive perspectives that have divided sociological theory into two camps, examines attempts to overcome this antinomy and sets out a new approach to resolving this dilemma via ‘critical reconfigurationism’.

Individualism, Holism and the Central Dilemma of Sociological Theory

Individualism, Holism and the Central Dilemma of Sociological Theory PDF

Author: Jiří Šubrt

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2019-05-13

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1787690377

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This book examines individualism and holism, the two interpretive perspectives that have divided sociological theory into two camps, examines attempts to overcome this antinomy and sets out a new approach to resolving this dilemma via ‘critical reconfigurationism’.

The Systemic Approach in Sociology and Niklas Luhmann

The Systemic Approach in Sociology and Niklas Luhmann PDF

Author: Jiří Šubrt

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2020-04-29

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 1839090316

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The systemic approach to sociology is widely considered to be one of the most important conceptions in sociology at the end of the 20th century. In this book Šubrt provides a comprehensive overview, and critical appraisal of the theory of social systems.

Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate

Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate PDF

Author: Julie Zahle

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-06-05

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 3319053442

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This collection of papers investigates the most recent debates about individualism and holism in the philosophy of social science. The debates revolve mainly around two issues: firstly, whether social phenomena exist sui generis and how they relate to individuals. This is the focus of discussions between ontological individualists and ontological holists. Secondly, to what extent social scientific explanations may and should, focus on individuals and social phenomena respectively. This issue is debated amongst methodological holists and methodological individualists. In social science and philosophy, both issues have been intensively discussed and new versions of the dispute have appeared just as new arguments have been advanced. At present, the individualism/holism debate is extremely lively and this book reflects the major positions and perspectives within the debate. This volume is also relevant to debates about two closely related issues in social science: the micro-macro debate and the agency-structure debate. This book presents contributions from key figures in both social science and philosophy, in the first such collection on this topic to be published since the 1970s.

The Content of Social Explanation

The Content of Social Explanation PDF

Author: Susan James

Publisher: CUP Archive

Published: 1984-11-15

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9780521266673

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This is a study of the central questions of explanation in the social sciences, and a defence of 'holism' against 'individualism'. In the first half of the book Susan James sets out very clearly the philosophical background to this controversy. She locates its source not at the analytical level at which most of the debate is usually conducted but at a more fundamental, moral level, in different conceptions of the human individual. In the second half of the book she examines critically three case studies of holistic approaches - Althusser, Poulantzas and the Annales historians - and progressively refines our sense of the strengths and deficiencies of their programmes. She ends by arguing for a form of concessive holism, which offers some accommodation to liberal conceptions of individual autonomy but continues to emphasise the explanatory importance of social regularities and environments.

Explaining Social Processes

Explaining Social Processes PDF

Author: Jiří Šubrt

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-08-18

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 3030521834

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This textbook considers understanding social processes to be the main task of sociology. From this perspective its authors demonstrate and explain problems which they consider to be crucial for contemporary social science. These are topics of a theoretical and epistemological nature, which are nevertheless closely connected with social development and issues arising from it. The book moves from the more general theoretical questions and dilemmas raised by key social thinkers, such as those connected with the concepts of actor, agency, institutions, structures and systems. It then leads to theoretical reflections on long-term developmental processes associated with the phenomena of power and life in current societies, including globalization, identities, migration, etc. It provides a comprehensive approach to the essential questions of sociology. Lucidly written and including the latest sociological perspectives, this book will find wide appeal among social science students and researchers, and is also for the socially aware general reader.

Civilization, Modernity, and Critique

Civilization, Modernity, and Critique PDF

Author: Ľubomír Dunaj

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-25

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 1000881512

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Civilization, Modernity, and Critique provides the first comprehensive, cutting-edge engagement with the work of one of the most foundational figures in civilizational analysis: Jóhann P. Árnason. In order to do justice to Árnason’s seminal and wide-ranging contributions to sociology, social theory and history, it brings together distinguished scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and geographical contexts. Through a critical, interdisciplinary dialogue, it offers an enrichment and expansion of the methodological, theoretical, and applicative scope of civilizational analysis, by addressing some of the most complex and pressing problems of contemporary global society. A unique and timely contribution to the ongoing task of advancing the project of a critical theory of society, this volume will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in historical sociology, critical theory and civilizational analysis.

Paradox

Paradox PDF

Author: Tom Vine

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-11-20

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 100099418X

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History reveals countless attempts by great minds to solve life’s paradoxes. But what if these attempts miss the point? What if paradox is life? Contrary to the supposedly sublime linear logic that underpins our prevalent modes of theoretical and empirical enquiry, in this fascinating book, organizational anthropologist Tom Vine charts the pervasiveness of paradox across the academy: from arithmetic to zoology. In so doing, he reflects on the concept of paradox as a widespread existential ‘pattern’, a pattern which holds significant metatheoretical and pedagogical potential. Paradoxes, he argues, are not inconveniences or ‘fault lines in our common-sense world’ but are coded into our very existence. Paradoxes thus present their own vital logics that shape our lives: they thwart moral and ideological uniformity; they even out subjective experience between ‘the haves’ and ‘the have nots’; and they shed light on the opaque concepts of consciousness and agency. This book will appeal to anybody with a curious mind, particularly scholars and students with an interest in one or more of the following: complexity theory, critical pedagogies, ethnography, nonlinear dynamics, organization theory, and systems theory.

Time, Memory, and the Processual Approach in Historical Sociology

Time, Memory, and the Processual Approach in Historical Sociology PDF

Author: Jiří Šubrt

Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press

Published: 2024-02-01

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 8024657511

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Within this publication, which is published to commemorate a milestone in Jiří Šubrt’s life, the editor Lucy Císař Brown has organised selected contributions by the author into four thematic areas: a) historical sociology: its development, content and professional focus; b) sociological issues of time, temporality and collective memory; c) theoretical discussions concerning conceptual problems and dilemmas in contemporary social sciences; d) developmental trends affecting the shape of contemporary societies and their historical development. What connects these thematic areas into one whole, giving the book a unified character, is Šubrt’s approach to sociology which emphasises the historical and processual perspective.

Individualism

Individualism PDF

Author: Pierre Birnbaum

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13:

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In recent years, the ability of holistic social theories to account for the rights, duties, and even reality of the individual, has been more and more often called into question. At the same time, interest in individualism in a variety of forms has been gaining ground, both as an object of study and as a methodology. This important collection brings together essays by eminent social scientists from several countries. They discuss the question of individualism from historical, methodological, hermeneutical, political, and sociological points of view and attempt to reconcile methodological individualism with the classical approach of sociological theory, based on collective identity. Together, the articles comprise a major contribution to a topical and widening debate.