Although classical sociology was not always oblivious or indifferent to the embodied dimensions of social relations, contemporary sociology has developed new perspectives and frameworks for underst...

The sociology of the body

Proclamations of ‘current crisis’ in sociology are long-standing and have recently resurfaced in Britian and North America. This article explores the response of Alvin Gouldner to an earlier 1970s ...

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Rethinking ‘Current Crisis’ Arguments: Gouldner and the Legacy of Critical Sociology:

Jiirgen Habermas may be, as a recent commentator asserted, the dominant intellectual figure in contemporary Germany. But in the last decade, the works of Habermas have found a receptive audience in the English-speaking world as well. Building upon the insights of Marxist social theory, Continental hermeneutic phenomenology, and Anglo-American linguistic philosophy, Habermas has attempted to construct a comprehensive critical theory of society. As a result, his work has broad implications for the entire range of humanities and social sciences. Habermas’ theories are now the object of critical discussions in political theory, sociology, philosophy, education, social psychology, and speech communication. Because Habermas’s project touches such a variety of disciplines, his own writing and critical discussions of it are spread throughout a disparate array of professional books and journals. Consequently, a reader wishing to comprehend Habermas’ thought and its influence has faced a difficult task in locating all relevant materials. This problem was partially erased by Thomas McCarthy, TIre Critical Theory of Jiirgen Hubennus (Cambridge, MA MIT Press, 1978), pp. 441-445, who provided a fairly thorough listing of Habermas’ books and articles in German and English. The present bibliography is intended to remedy the problem completely by cataloging the critical treatments and extensions of his work which have appeared in Europe, North America, and elsewhere since 1964. Included here are books, book chapters, articles, dissertations, conference papers, and book reviews in

Jürgen Habermas: An International Bibliography

La sociologie classique a été en grande partie attachée à la théorisation des aspects de la modernité qui concernent la « sphère publique », et peut-être, dans un premier temps, à un héritage présent dans la théorie sociale/politique et dans la philosophie qui promouvait des concepts rationnels et décorporalisés de la façon d’être dans le monde. Même si la sociologie a vite surmonté la pensée des Lumières d’inspiration cartésienne et son biais pragmatique, les dimensions corporalisées et émotionnelles de l’existence humaine et des relations sociales n’ont pas partagé la place centrale occupée par plusieurs autres phénomènes ou questions considérés comme les éléments définissant les préoccupations d’une discipline émergente. Pourtant, la sociologie est aussi née du désir d’ouverture de l’éventail des possibilités de la pensée sociale moderne. Max Weber a compris que « l’action rationnelle » privilégiée dans la société moderne était circonscrite dans le temps et dans l’espace, et Simmel a attiré l’attention sur les nouvelles « expériences sensorielles » de la vie urbaine moderne. Nous pouvons reconnaître que Karl Marx (1964) – qui, comme Stuart Hall (1972) a affirmé, a été celui qui a conféré une nouvelle historicité au sujet (des Lumières) – prend en considération les dimensions corporelles des relations sociales, ce qui est évident lorsque Marx analyse comment le « capital » a infligé ses châtiments à la chair et au sang, c’est-à-dire à l’existence corporalisée des classes ouvrières. Même si Émile Durkheim (1967, 1986) semble avoir eu peu à dire en ce qui concerne le caractère corporalisé des « faits sociaux », son imagination sociologique, poussée par des perceptions des différentes relations que la société « tribale » et la société moderne avaient par rapport aux aspects émotionnels et symboliques, l’a amené à réfléchir aux formes corporalisées d’expression émotionnelle chez les sociétés tribales, ce qu’il a compris comme des façons sociales et collectives de construire et d’affirmer résumé Même si la sociologie classique n’a pas toujours été insouciante et indifférente aux dimensions corporalisées des relations sociales, la sociologie contemporaine a développé de nouvelles perspectives et de nouveaux cadres d’analyse pour comprendre le corps en tant que construction sociale et culturelle et en tant qu’élément fondamental dans les processus matériels et symboliques de pouvoir et de convivialité. Le présent article esquisse le développement des approches sociologiques du corps, en présentant des contributions clés issues de diverses écoles de pensée, de Bourdieu et Elias aux théories féministe, queer et du post-structuralisme foucaldien.

Sociologie contemporaine et le corps

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the role of television news media in maintaining cultural hegemony in the United States. The financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 was used as a window into this process. For this investigation, a qualitative frame analysis was conducted on samples of television news coverage from major moments during the financial crisis and the resulting economic recession. Additionally, peer group discussions were conducted as a window into how people who fit the social and cultural imaginary of “Middle America,” an important part of the historic bloc which forms the contemporary United States cultural hegemony, discussed the financial crisis and recession in a social context. The results found five major explanatory frames which dominated coverage of the financial crisis; strategygame frame, survivor stories, bootstraps frame, opportunity in disaster, and populism. Taken in aggregate, these frames directed attention away from the actions of the economic elite and onto either the actions of politicians or the responsibilities of non-elite individuals. Moreover, these frames deprived the information environment of information which might otherwise facilitate an understanding of the financial crisis as resulting from the actions and practices of the business elite or the economic structure.
Participants in the peer group discussions seemed to echo much of the picture provided by television media, demonstrating in particular a pervasive belief in a dysfunctional American government. Overall, participants struggled to demonstrate a fundamental understanding of the financial crisis, and this hindered their ability to form and express counter-ideologies. This was in spite of pervasive, emotional expression of betrayal, dissatisfaction and economic vulnerability.
Overall, it is concluded that television news media functions as a hegemonic apparatus due to its practices producing frames and narratives which obscure the role of the capitalist classes even in the event of an economic crisis.

Paul Walton

Papers

The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology

Situating Marx: Evaluations and Departures