Modern and Postmodern Social Theorizing
Bridging the Divide

Examines the conflict between modern and postmodern theories in sociology and attempts to bridge the divide between them.

Nicos P. Mouzelis (Author)

9780521731539, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 20 November 2008

326 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.52 kg

'In this masterly survey of developments in social theory over the last half century, Mouzelis identifies the strengths and weaknesses of competing schools of thought and sets out the means of their reconciliation. It shows concisely and convincingly where sociological theory should be going if it is to regain its original path. His resolution of the conceptual shortcomings arising from the unbalanced treatment of the relationships between agency and structure at both macro and micro levels of analysis is brilliantly set out in the concluding Part Five. With its comprehensive grasp of a complex body of work, this much needed reformulation of basic principles is in a class of its own. A tour de force.' David Lockwood, University of Essex

There is a growing conflict between modern and postmodern social theorists. The latter reject modern approaches as economistic, essentialist and often leading to authoritarian policies. Modernists criticize postmodern approaches for their rejection of holistic conceptual frameworks which facilitate an overall picture of how social wholes (organizations, communities, nation-states, etc.) are constituted, reproduced and transformed. They believe the rejection of holistic methodologies leads to social myopia - a refusal to explore critically the type of broad problems that classical sociology deals with. This book attempts to bridge the divide between these two conflicting perspectives and proposes a novel holistic framework which is neither reductionist/economistic nor essentialist. Modern and Postmodern Social Theorizing will appeal to scholars and students of social theory and of social sciences in general.

Introduction
Part I. The Theoretical Background: The Development of the Agency-Structure Problematic: 1. From Parsons' to Giddens' synthesis
Part II. Parsonian and Post-Parsonian Developments: 2. Parsons and the development of individual rights
3. Evolution and democracy: Parsons and the collapse of communism
4. Post-Parsonian theory I: neo-functionalism and beyond
Postscript: Alexander's cultural sociology
5. Post-Parsonian theory II: beyond the normative and the utilitarian
Part III. Agency and Structure: Reworking some Basic Conceptual Tools: 6. Social and system integration: Lockwood, Habermas and Giddens
7. The subjectivist-objectivist divide: against transcendence
8. Habitus and reflexivity: restructuring Bourdieu's theory of practice
Part IV. Bridges Between Modern and Late/Postmodern Theorizing: 9. Modernity: a non-Eurocentric conceptualization
10. Ethical relativism: between scientism and cultural relativism
11. Cognitive relativism: between positivistic and relativistic thinking in the social sciences
12. Social causation: between social constructionism and critical realism
Part V. Towards a Non-Essentialist Holism: 13. Grand narratives: contextless and context-sensitive theories
14. The actor-structure dimension: anti-conflationist holism
15. The micro-macro dimension: anti-essentialist holism
16. The inter-institutional dimension: beyond economism and culturalism
Instead of Conclusion: twelve rules for the construction of an open-ended holistic paradigm
Appendix: In defence of 'grand' historical sociology.

Subject Areas: Social theory [JHBA], History of ideas [JFCX]