Sociological Theory: What Went Wrong?: Diagnosis and Remedies

BOOK COVER......Page 1
HALF-TITLE......Page 2
TITLE......Page 3
COPYRIGHT......Page 4
DEDICATION......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 10
1 THEORY AS TOOL AND THEORY AS END-PRODUCT......Page 12
2 THE RISE AND FALL OF MODERN SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY......Page 14
3 CONCEPTUAL PRAGMATISM......Page 19
Part I DIAGNOSIS......Page 22
1 IMPASSES OF MICRO-SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIZING......Page 24
1 THE DEBATE ON THE NATURE OF GOFFMAN’S ‘INTERACTION ORDER’......Page 26
2 NEGLECT OF SOCIAL HIERARCHIES: BRIDGING THE MICRO-MACRO GAP VIA THE LOGIC OF AGGREGATION OR REPRESENTATION......Page 28
3 THE DISCONNECTION BETWEEN MICRO AND MACRO ANALYSIS......Page 33
4 CONCLUSION......Page 34
2 RATIONAL-CHOICE THEORIES......Page 38
1 MICRO-MACRO LINKAGES......Page 39
2 COLEMAN’S CONTRIBUTION......Page 40
3 NEGLECT OF THE SOCIO-CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT......Page 43
4 NEGLECT OF THEORETICAL CONTEXT......Page 44
5 NORMS AND INTERESTS......Page 46
6 CONCLUSION......Page 49
3 POST-STRUCTURALISM......Page 52
1 ANTI-FOUNDATIONALISM......Page 53
2 DECENTRING THE SUBJECT......Page 56
3 REJECTION OF THE NOTION OF REPRESENTATION AND EMPIRICAL REFERENCE......Page 59
4 DEDIFFERENTIATION......Page 63
5.1 From political economy to political discourse......Page 65
5.2 ‘Transcending’ the agency-institutional structure distinction......Page 68
5.3 Baudrillard: from eclecticism to reductionism......Page 72
Part II TENTATIVE REMEDIES......Page 76
1 INTRODUCTION......Page 78
2 SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES: SOCIAL INTERDEPENDENCE AND THE CIVILIZING PROCESS......Page 80
3 THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES......Page 83
4 CONCLUSION......Page 88
1 THE NEO-FUNCTIONALIST ATTEMPT TO REVIVE PARSONIAN SOCIOLOGY......Page 90
2 A CRITIQUE OF NEO-FUNCTIONALISM AND NEO-EVOLUTIONISM......Page 94
3 AGIL: ITS RELATIONSHIP TO FIGURATIONAL AND INSTITUTIONAL WHOLES......Page 95
4 AGIL: THE TECHNOLOGICAL, APPROPRIATIVE AND IDEOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL ORDERS......Page 98
5 PPLICATION......Page 103
6 CONCLUSION......Page 106
1 INTRODUCTION......Page 108
2.1 The seminar game......Page 109
2.1.2 Bourdieu’s approach......Page 110
2.1.3 The interpretative, interactionist approach......Page 111
2.2.1 The positional, dispositional and interactive-situational dimensions of social games......Page 112
2.2.3 Habitus and intentionality......Page 116
2.2.4 Bourdieu’s ‘transcendence’ of objectvist and subjectivist sociologies......Page 118
2.2.5 The consequences of Bourdieu’s underemphasis of the interactive-situational dimension......Page 122
3 GIDDENS’ DUALITY OF STRUCTURE......Page 124
3.1 Brief expose......Page 125
3.2 General critique......Page 126
3.3 Duality of structure and the distinction between institutional analysis and strategic conduct......Page 128
4 CONCLUSION......Page 131
1 FUNCTIONALISM: LEGITIMATE AND ILLEGITIMATE FORMS......Page 134
1.1 The social-whole-participant emphasis: acceptable functionalism......Page 135
1.2 Unacceptable functionalism I: Parsons......Page 136
1.3 Unacceptable functionalism II: Althusser......Page 137
2.1 The logic of Parsons’ functional requirements......Page 138
2.2 Passing from necessary to sufficient conditions......Page 140
3 FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS AND ACTION ANALYSIS......Page 141
3.1 The positional, dispositional and interactive dimensions of games......Page 143
3.2 Duality and dualism......Page 144
3.3 Social hierarchies......Page 148
3.4 Relations between hierarchies......Page 151
3.5 Hierarchies as technologies......Page 152
CONCLUSION......Page 156
I Foundationalism, essentialism, holism......Page 161
III Institutional and figurational wholes......Page 162
IV Micro-macro......Page 163
VI Social hierarchies......Page 164
VII The three-dimensional character of games......Page 165
VIII Functionalism......Page 166
1 HIERARCHIES AND THE PURSUIT OF CAPITAL......Page 168
2 POSITIONS, DISPOSITIONS, SITUATIONS: DEGREES OF CONGRUENCE......Page 170
3 LINKAGES BETWEEN DIFFERENT TYPES OF CAPITAL......Page 173
4.1 From duality to dualism on the paradigmatic level......Page 175
4.2 Hierarchical fragmentation......Page 176
4.3 Economic and cultural capital: homologies and heterologies......Page 177
NOTES......Page 180
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 216
INDEX......Page 224