Showing papers by "Bryan S. Turner published in 2012"

The legacy of Pierre Bourdieu: critical essays

Abstract: Book synopsis: Pierre Bourdieu is widely regarded as one of the most influential sociologists of his generation, and yet the reception of his work in different cultural contexts and academic disciplines has been varied and uneven. This volume maps out the legacy of Pierre Bourdieu in contemporary social and political thought from the standpoint of classical European sociology and from the broader perspective of transatlantic social science. It brings together contributions from prominent scholars in the field, providing a range of perspectives on the continuing relevance of Bourdieu’s oeuvre to substantive problems in social and political analysis.

Managing religions, citizenship and the liberal paradox

Abstract: When we refer to the ‘management of religions’, we are primarily referring to the ways in which modern liberal states have responded to ‘public religions’ and in particular to the revival of Islam. The specific issues surrounding Muslim minorities in non-Muslim secular states can be seen as simply one instance of the more general problem of state and religion in modern societies. In this context, there is an increasing awareness of the limitations of the Westphalian constitutional solution, the Hobbesian social contract and Lockean liberalism as political strategies to manage conflicting religious traditions (Spinner-Halevy 2005). Unfortunately, Richard Hooker's ecclesiastical polity (1594–1597) and his plea that we should concentrate on those doctrines that unite rather than divide us has little relevance in societies that are deeply divided by cultural difference. This situation typically confronts the state because religion is often inseparable from ethnic identity, so that debates about secularization...

Authority and liquid religion in cyber-space: the new territories of religious communication

Abstract: This article considers three case studies of forms of authority within new cyber-territories. We first deal with the example of a traditional religion, Islam, by exploring new social issues that this religious system encounters in cyber-space. Second, we turn to a social movement that is by definition less traditional and less established, namely neo-paganism; and finally, we examine the new phenomenon of hyper-real religion (Possamai 2005b, 2012) to discover whether, even in free-floating religions where in principle everything is permitted and where the individual has full autonomy to decide on the specific constructions of his/her religion, forms of authority and social/religious distinctions are paradoxically present.

Sociology in the USA and beyond A half-century decline?

Abstract: In this article I trace the fortunes of sociology in the United States, Britain and Australia over the course of some 60 years. I compare the impact of professionalization, migration and institutio...

Debating "the Social": Towards a Critique of Sociological Nostalgia

Abstract: Although sociology can be commonsensically and parsimoniously defined as the study of society, the problems of defining such terms as ‘society’, ‘the social’, and ‘the social system’ remain an ongoing irritant of sociological theory. In addition to these traditional conceptual problems, there is currently a strong sense that ‘society’ as an empirical reality and ‘society’ as a concept are in crisis. Given the contemporary view of ‘the end of the social’ there is also manifestly a potent and nostalgic interest in the past as a time of comforting solidarity and meaningfulness. To clarify this debate, we start by making a distinction between three approaches to society, namely structure, solidarity and creation. Nostalgia hinges around the certainties that followed from reliable social structures, and from the comfort of community. We illustrate these forms of nostalgia through an examination of the social philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre. Recognizing that his criticisms of the loss of virtue represent a powerful indictment of modernity, we argue that past societies were also fractured by moral discord. More importantly, MacIntyre rules out the possibility of moral re-invention by excluding the rise of human rights as a moral framework. In conclusion, the forms of social creativity may not enjoy the ‘sticky’ solidarity of the past, but they do testify Georg Simmel’s idea of the social (Vergesellschaftung).

In Defence of Monarchy

Abstract: Aristocracy in the Colonial American ImaginationHistorically American opposition to monarchy has beenconnected to a wider opposition to aristocracy. What hascometocharacteriseAmericanattitudestoindividuallibertiesis a long lasting hostility to the ‘idle rich’. In this respect, theThorstein Veblen’snotionofthe‘leisure class’ was an ironicreflection on American social structure; leisure was notofficially an important aspect of core American values. Thedefinition of citizenship in this context came to be associatednot so much with the need for ‘honest toil’, but with theautonomy and self-respect that attended employment as aworker. Judith N. Shklar (1991:67), arguably the leadingpolitical writer on American citizenship, claimed that ‘Weare citizens only if we “earn”’. From a jurisprudentialperspective, there is a necessary connection between rightand duty, and therefore earning an income is crucial ifcitizens are to fulfill their obligations to the community inpaying their taxes, and maintaining a household.However, for writers like Shklar there is deeper moralmeaning to working for a living. In colonial America, thetwo social groups in society not involved in working for anincome were slaves and aristocrats—the former wereinvoluntarily excluded from the dignity of waged work,while the latter were privileged by the inheritance of wealthand could voluntarily avoid the necessity of work. Theaccident of birth either as a slave or as an aristocrat was tobe expunged from the social landscape of a revolutionarydemocracy. The problem of aristocratic privilege is noteasily resolved and for Shklar (1991:85) these attitudespersist in contemporary America: “Resentment of the idlemonopolist and aristocract, and fear of being reduced to thecondition of a black slave, or of a black second-classcitizen, have not disappeared, because they are grounded inlasting political experiences.”The founders of Jacksonian democracy feared thataristocracy could be easily re-established in America andthat constant vigilance was required to prevent such aregressive development. In the European context, aristoc-racy referred to the privileges associated with the hereditaryownership of land and the privileges, titles and status thatcame with it. In the American colonies, it came to meanelitism of any sort, but more specifically it referred to thefew who would scheme and plot to use the powers ofpolitical office against the many. In the 1780s there waswidespread anxiety among country democrats that thewealthy men who sought to run the state would reducethem to a new form of vassalage. These democraticimpulses for social equality were further enhanced by thespread of evangelical influence with the New EnglandGreat Awakening which pitched evangelicals from the ruralhinterland against the Anglican gentry of the seaboardstates. These country democrats joined hands with the‘urban yeomanry’ of New York to oppose any legacy ofaristocratic privilege, including clerical privilege. Forexample, they opposed the draft provisions of the 1780Constitution that required public financial support forCongregational churches (Wilentz 2005: 19). These demo-crats feared a ‘new aristocracy of monopolists andespecially the men who ran the Bank of the UnitedStates’(1991:66) and therefore they assumed there was adanger that the rights of the industrious working classwould be ‘sapped by crafty and indolent bankers’(1991:74). Attempts to introduce property qualifications

Arab Citizenship: the Arab Spring and its Unintended Consequences

Abstract: espanolLa oleada de protestas y revueltas producidas a lo largo del norte de Africa y Oriente Medio durante la primera mitad de 2011 ha despertado un interes considerable tanto en el ambito periodistico como en el academico. Aunque originadas en Tunez, la pieza central de estos levantamientos fue la revolucion del 25 de enero en Egipto, que acabo con la salida del poder del Presidente Hosni Mubarak, la eleccion popular de Mohamed Morsi y la creacion de una comision constituyente. Una revuelta popular en Libia acabo con el asesinato del coronel Gadafi y el arresto de su hijo. En Yemen, el equilibrio inestable entre el norte tribal y el sur modernizado comenzo a romperse. A pesar del entusiasmo general por que se produjera un proceso pacifico de democratizacion, desde el otono de 2012 predomina un mayor realismo, si no cinismo, sobre las perspectivas de un cambio social duradero. Me referire a este desarrollo insospechado de la Primavera Arabe y sus revuelas populares como �el invierno de nuestro descontento�. Hay una inquietud muy extendida sobre lo que pueda venir tras el derrocamiento de los regimenes de Yemen, Tunez, Libia y Egipto, y una mayor ansiedad aun sobre lo que pueda suceder, si algo sucede, tras el enfrentamiento civil en Siria. De las elecciones democraticas en Tunez y Egipto han salido gobiernos y cambios legislativos inspirados en el conservadurismo islamico mas que en un proyecto democratico secularizado. El deterioro de los derechos de las mujeres que se deduce de la nueva legislacion es un claro indicador en este sentido. Analizare estos procesos valiendome de la nocion weberiana de las consecuencias no intencionales de la accion y discutiendo si estas sociedades lucharan por crear ciudadania, sociedades civiles viables e instituciones politicas democraticas y transparentes. Es poco probable que los movimientos sociales sobrevivan si no permean las instituciones locales y grupos sociales. El desarrollo de la ciudadania depende de la consolidacion de una clase media �una clase social casi por completo ausente en la region, con la excepcion de Turquia. Los Hermanos Musulmanes se fortalecen gracias a su prolongada implicacion a nivel local, de ahi que los cambios sociales de caracter mas conservador se hayan impuesto poco a poco a los elementos mas inclusivos y secularizadores de la revolucion. EnglishThe wave of protests and revolts across North Africa and the Middle East occurring in the first half of 2011 has generated considerable academic and journalistic interest. Starting in Tunisia, the centre piece of these uprisings was the 25 January Revolution in Egypt resulting in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, the popular election of Mohamed Morsi, and the creation of a panel to develop a new constitution. A popular uprising in Libya resulted in the killing of Colonel Gaddafi and the arrest of his son. In the Yemen, the unstable relationship between the tribal North and the modernized South began to unravel. Despite the general enthusiasm for a peaceful transition to democracy, by the autumn of 2012 there was more realism if not cynicism about the prospects of lasting social change. I refer to this unanticipated development of the Arab Spring and associated popular uprisings as "the winter of our discontent". There is widespread concern about what might come after the overthrow of the regimes in Yemen, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, and even more anxiety about what, if anything, may come after the civil violence in Syria. Democratic elections in Tunisia and Egypt are producing governments and legal codes that are inspired more by conservative Islam than by secular versions of democracy. One indicator is the trend towards an erosion of the rights of women by new laws. I analyse these developments within the framework of Max Weber's notion of the unintended consequences of action by arguing that these societies will struggle to create citizenship, viable civil societies and democratically transparent political institutions. Social movements are unlikely to survive without becoming embedded in local institutions and social groups. The growth of citizenship typically depends on a relatively well established and successful middle class - a social class that is largely absent in the region with the exception of Turkey. The Muslim Brotherhood gains strength from its long-term involvement at the village level, and hence its more conservative view of social transformation has slowly replaced more inclusive, secular components of the revolution.

Religion in China - About Fenggang Yang, Religion in China. Survival and Revival under Communist Rule (Oxford, University of Oxford Press, 2012).

Abstract: T h e v o l u m e c o n t a i n s work previously published from 2004 onwards, including the influential article on ‘‘The Red, Black, and Gray Markets of Religion in China’’ from the Sociological Quarterly volume 47 in 2006 which won the Distinguished Article Award from the American Sociological Association in the same year. Reprinted as chapter 5, it represents the core argument of this collection. Other chapters such as chapter 3 on ‘‘Chinese Marxist Atheism and its Policy Implications’’ explore the history of Communist Party strategies to suppress religion in general and Christianity in particular, resulting in what he calls in chapter 6 ‘‘The Shortage Economy of Religion under Communism’’. The book concludes with chapter 7 (‘‘Oligopoly Dynamics: China and Beyond’’) in which he explores four types of state-religion relationships, namely pluralism, oligopoly, monopoly and total ban. Religion in China provides a coherent and comprehensive account of religious revivalism as China moves from a total ban to pluralism, albeit with many contradictions and punitive regulations. In his sociology of Chinese religious revival, Fenggang Yang has explained the character of religion via the so-called economic or market model of religious growth, which was developed originally to criticise the secularisation thesis and to explain the vitality of religion in America. The market model assumes that the demand for religion is more or less constant, and therefore fluctuations in religious activity are explained by supply. The theory suggests that open religious markets in which religious groups (or ‘‘firms’’) are relatively free to compete for followers (‘‘customers’’) produce an open dynamic environment in which religious groups can prosper. By contrast, restricted markets, where the state seeks to suppress or regulate religion, produce black or grey markets in which illegal or semi-legal groups attempt to provide religious ‘‘products’’ within a limited market. The more restricted the market, the more we can expect a sizeable grey market to evolve. The theory also assumes that individuals in restricted markets will face high costs, such as ostracism or imprisonment, in ‘‘buying’’ and ‘‘consuming’’ religious services. The model has obvious prima facia relevance in comparing China and the United States in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Whereas America has had, in the absence of an established church, a robust religious market producing

La ciudadanía árabe: la Primavera Árabe y sus consecuencias no intencionales

Abstract: The wave of protests and revolts across North Africa and the Middle East occurring in the first half of 2011 has generated considerable academic and journalistic interest. Starting in Tunisia, the centre piece of these uprisings was the 25 January Revolution in Egypt resulting in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, the popular election of Mohamed Morsi, and the creation of a panel to develop a new constitution. A popular uprising in Libya resulted in the killing of Colonel Gaddafi and the arrest of his son. In the Yemen, the unstable relationship between the tribal North and the modernized South began to unravel. Despite the general enthusiasm for a peaceful transition to democracy, by the autumn of 2012 there was more realism if not cynicism about the prospects of lasting social change. I refer to this unanticipated development of the Arab Spring and associated popular uprisings as ‘the winter of our discontent’. There is widespread concern about what might come after the overthrow of the regimes in Yemen, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, and even more anxiety about what, if anything, may come after the civil violence in Syria. Democratic elections in Tunisia and Egypt are producing governments and legal codes that are inspired more by conservative Islam than by secular versions of democracy. One indicator is the trend towards an erosion of the rights of women by new laws. I analyse these developments within the framework of Max Weber’s notion of the unintended consequences of action by arguing that these societies will struggle to create citizenship, viable civil societies and democratically transparent political institutions. Social movements are unlikely to survive without becoming embedded in local institutions and social groups. The growth of citizenship typically depends on a relatively well established and successful middle class – a social class that is largely absent in the region with the exception of Turkey. The Muslim Brotherhood gains strength from its long-term involvement at the village level, and hence its more conservative view of social transformation has slowly replaced more inclusive, secular components of the revolution.