Author
Matteo Bortolini
Bio: Matteo Bortolini is an academic researcher from University of Padua. The author has contributed to research in topics: Civil religion & Discipline. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 25 publications receiving 202 citations.
Papers
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that successful ideas bring recognition to their authors, successful authors have their ideas recognized more easily than unknown ones, and that when an idea is more important than its creator, the latter becomes identified with the former, and this will hinder recognition of the intellectual's new ideas as they differ from old ones in their content or style.
Abstract: Current sociology of knowledge tends to take for granted Robert K. Merton’s theory of cumulative advantage: successful ideas bring recognition to their authors, successful authors have their ideas recognized more easily than unknown ones. This article argues that this theory should be revised via the introduction of the differential between the status of an idea and that of its creator: when an idea is more important than its creator, the latter becomes identified with the former, and this will hinder recognition of the intellectual’s new ideas as they differ from old ones in their content or style. Robert N. Bellah’s performance during the “civil religion debate” of the 1970s is reconstructed as an example of how this mechanism may work. Implications for further research are considered in the concluding section.
144 citations
TL;DR: The first volume in a series entitled Studie Helmut Staubmann and dedicated to the do and application of the intellectual tradition Parsons: A Theory of Social Action for the Tw the papers presented at a conference held i 2002 to commemorate the centenary of P Studies (henceforth MS) focuses mainly on issues as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Despite the many attempts to hide, or even ghost of Talcott Parsons is still haunting soc nize the continuing importance of his sem 1995), other scholars around the globe are Parsonian tradition alive and further it in its two collections of essays under review are i can be conceived and approached today. Ac the first volume in a series entitled Studie Helmut Staubmann and dedicated to the do and application of the intellectual tradition Parsons: A Theory of Social Action for the Tw the papers presented at a conference held i 2002 to commemorate the centenary of P Studies (henceforth MS) focuses mainly on issues – with chapters by H. Staubmann, V G. Sciortino, and a hitherto unpublished the history of ideas, – After Parsons (hence social institutions and processes (chapters by and H. Bershady), societal community an Alexander, G. Sciortino, R.N. Bellah, and in sociological theory and research (chap U. Gerhardt, and C. Camic) and the h Tiryakian, R.C. Fox, and V.M. Lidz). European Journal of Social Theory 10(1): 153–172
13 citations
TL;DR: The intellectual trajectories of social scientists Robert N. Bellah and Clifford Geertz are compared as a case study in the production of successful interdisciplinary work as discussed by the authors, and the authors of the paper compare their trajectories with those of other social scientists.
Abstract: The intellectual trajectories of social scientists Robert N. Bellah and Clifford Geertz are compared as a case study in the production of successful interdisciplinary work. Geertz and Bellah starte...
10 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss Habermas's early reflections on postsecularism and assess his interpretation of public religious rituals as sources of social integration, and propose an alternative to his translation proviso whereby religious symbolic content would be translated into behavior-regulating technologies aimed at developing the dispositional resources needed for a continuous post-secular dialogue between religious and non-religious citizens.
Abstract: In his recent work on postsecular societies Jurgen Habermas has stressed the need for a dialogue between religious and nonreligious citizens aimed at strengthening social integration and rejuvenating the moral bases of modern political and juridical institutions. This dialogue should focus on the translation of religious traditions into rational, secular forms. In his more recent work on the social function of rituals, however, he rejected the Durkheimian view of public secular rituals as mechanisms for fostering social integration. In this article I discuss Habermas’s early reflections on postsecularism and assess his interpretation of public religious rituals as sources of social integration. I then propose an alternative to his translation proviso whereby religious symbolic content would be translated into behavior-regulating technologies aimed at developing the dispositional resources needed for a continuous postsecular dialogue between religious and nonreligious citizens.
9 citations
TL;DR: The so-called Bellah affair at Princeton as discussed by the authors began in March 1973 when a harsh but nonetheless ordinary academic fight over the appointment of Robert N. Bellah as a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton found its way to the wider public sphere.
Abstract: The so-called “Bellah affair at Princeton” began in March 1973 when a harsh but nonetheless ordinary academic fight over the appointment of Robert N. Bellah as a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton found its way to the wider public sphere. Using published and unpublished evidence, the paper shows how two different interpretations of academic freedom were put forward by Bellah’s supporters and opponents, and how the sociological profession understood the episode as a disciplinary attack on the part of the hard sciences and historical disciplines. The emerging symbolic constellation led all the relevant actors to develop a shared interest in the rapid oblivion of the episode: the Bellah affair became a lose-lose game which all the players wanted to end as rapidly as possible.
8 citations
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TL;DR: The Social Contexts of Research as mentioned in this paper is a collection of articles about the social context of research in the 1970s and 1980s, edited by Saad Z. Nagi and Ronald G. Corwin. Pp. xii + 409.
Abstract: The Social Contexts of Research. Edited by Saad Z. Nagi and Ronald G. Corwin. Pp. xii + 409. (John Wiley: New York and London, August 1972.) £5.65.
1,206 citations
TL;DR: The authors discusses North American and European research from the sociology of valuation and evaluation (SVE), a research topic that has attracted considerable attention in recent years, focusing on subprocesses such as categorization and legitimation, conditions that sustain heterarchies and valuation and evaluative practices.
Abstract: This review discusses North American and European research from the sociology of valuation and evaluation (SVE), a research topic that has attracted considerable attention in recent years. The goal is to bring various bodies of work into conversation with one another in order to stimulate more cumulative theory building. This is accomplished by focusing on (a) subprocesses such as categorization and legitimation, (b) the conditions that sustain heterarchies, and (c) valuation and evaluative practices. The article reviews these literatures and provides directions for a future research agenda.
930 citations
783 citations
727 citations
TL;DR: Rappaport as mentioned in this paper discusses the role of faith in the making of human beings and their relationship to the creation of the world. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999, p.536 pp.
Abstract: Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Roy A. Rappaport. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.536 pp.
707 citations