Showing papers in "European Journal of Social Theory in 1999"
TL;DR: In this paper, the author argues that many situations in social life can be analyzed by their requirement for the justification of action and argues that the human capacity for criticism becomes visible in the daily occurrence of disputes over criteria for justification.
Abstract: This article argues that many situations in social life can be analyzed by their requirement for the justification of action. It is in particular in situations of dispute that a need arises to explicate the grounds on which responsibility for errors is distributed and on which new agreement can be reached. Since a plurality of mutually incompatible modes of justification exists, disputes can be understood as disagreements either about whether the accepted rule of justification has not been violated or about which mode of justification to apply at all. The article develops a grammar of such modes of justification, called orders of worth (grandeur), and argues that the human capacity for criticism becomes visible in the daily occurrence of disputes over criteria for justification. At the same time, it is underlined that not all social situations can be interpreted with the help of such a sense of justice, which resides on a notion of equivalence. Regimes of love, of violence or of familiarity are systematic...
959 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that the translation of books may be seen as constituting a cultural world system, and that the working of this system, based on a core-periphery structure, accounts for...
Abstract: This article argues that the translation of books may be fruitfully understood as constituting a cultural world-system. The working of this system, based on a core-periphery structure, accounts for...
340 citations
158 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the moral and political sociology developed by the research group around Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot from its gradual dissociation from the tradition of critical sociology during the 1980s to the present.
Abstract: This article presents the moral and political sociology developed by the research group around Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot from its gradual dissociation from the tradition of critical sociology during the 1980s to the present. Taking the major presentation of this approach, De la justification, as the point of departure, the key items of criticism to which this book was exposed are discussed, both in terms of their intellectual merit and in light of the ongoing debates in French social and political theory. The work of this group was often rather erroneously taken to have provided both a new theory of society and a new normative political philosophy. What it aimed at achieving in the first place, in contrast, was a questioning of the assumptions on which reasonings in social theory and political philosophy are based and how those reasonings relate to social actors' own engagement with the world. Not least in response to the criticism received, however, the approach has been further elaborated in re...
145 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw a parallel between two contemporary French conceptions of sociology, i.e., critical and pragmatic, in terms of the principles and strategies of its sociological method.
Abstract: This paper draws a parallel between two contemporary French conceptions of sociology. Each is first considered in terms of the principles and strategies of its sociological method. Through an analogy with Marx's philosophy of social science, critical sociology is shown to make an heuristic use for the analysis of cultures and social structures of the resistance to sociology that the sociologist encounters in the social objects, whereas pragmatic sociology adopts a pluralistic and descriptive strategy towards actions, actors and things. The paper then tries to show how common interests or trading zones could allow both critical and pragmatic sociology to profit from their competitive relation by taking each other as objects of sociological analysis.
122 citations
TL;DR: The authors suggests the value of maintaining a distinction among relational networks, cultural or legal categories, and discursive publics. But the idea of the public is crucial, since it prefigures the ways in which membership and difference are constructed.
Abstract: Discussion of political and legal citizenship requires attention to social solidarity. Current approaches to citizenship, however, tend to proceed on abstract bases, neglecting this sociological dimension. This is partly because a tacit understanding of what constitutes a `society' has been developed through implicit reliance on the idea of `nation'. Issues of social belonging are addressed more directly in communitarian and multiculturalist discourses. Too often, however, different modes of solidarity and participation are confused. Scale is often neglected. The model of `nation' again prefigures the ways in which membership and difference are constructed. The present paper suggests the value of maintaining a distinction among relational networks, cultural or legal categories, and discursive publics. The first constitute community in a sense quite different from either of the second and third. Categories, however, are increasingly prominent in largescale social life. But the idea of the public is crucial...
92 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a shift from the single actor perspective to an interaction perspective is proposed, using Habermas and Luhmann as theoretical arguments for such a shift, and it is argued that in order to learn people need a narratively based shared world.
Abstract: Evolution and learning are two analytically distinct concepts. People learn yet evolution (`change') does not necessarily take place. To clarify this problem the concept of learning is explicated. The first problem addressed is the question of who is learning. Here a shift from the single actor perspective to an interaction perspective is proposed (using Habermas and Luhmann as theoretical arguments for such a shift). Both, however, idealize the preconditions that interactants share while learning collectively. Against rationalist assumptions it is argued that in order to learn people need a narratively based shared world. What do they learn? They acquire knowledge and they learn how to learn. This still does not solve the problem why they learn. Learning, it is argued, does not guarantee evolution but provides the mutations for evolutionary processes to take place.
62 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that parliamentary institutions have increasing difficulty in addressing and dealing with the growing complexity, highly technical character, and rapidity of many developments in modern societies.
Abstract: This article argues that parliamentary institutions have increasing difficulty in addressing and dealing with the growing complexity, highly technical character and rapidity of many developments in modern societies. Deficits in representation, in knowledge and competence, and in engagement or commitment effectively erode the authority and status of parliamentary government. Major rule- and policy-making activities are being substantially displaced from parliamentary bodies and central governments to global, regional and local agents as well as agents operating in the many sectors of a highly differentiated, modern society. Governance - and sovereignty - are increasingly diffused upward, downward and outward beyond parliament and its government. The author identifies problems, practical as well as normative, with this general development and discusses the possibilities and limitations of reform.
58 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued for a more contingent linkage between culture and identity in the analysis of nationalism, while drawing conclusions for t... and argued that most theories of nationalism presume a causal link between 'culture' and 'identity'.
Abstract: Most theories of nationalism presume a causal link between 'culture' and 'identity' in the analysis of nationalism. This article argues for a more contingent linkage while drawing conclusions for t...
50 citations
TL;DR: Although the historical process of globalization has promoted the nation-state as a universal cultural form, national ideologies are far from uniform as discussed by the authors, and the competing discoupled discourses are not uniform.
Abstract: Although the historical process of globalization has promoted the nation-state as a universal cultural form, national ideologies are far from uniform. This article explores how the competing discou...
37 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the author argues that the sociological imagination has yet to provide a sufficient account of the interrelationship between representations of social problems in the public sphere and the variety of anxieties which individuals may encounter in their ''personal troubles of milieu''.
Abstract: This article critically investigates the presumption that we are living in a qualitatively new `age of anxiety'. It suggests that most sociologists who address this topic have so far failed to recognize the analytical complexity of the condition of anxiety itself. By examining the possibility of establishing sociological indicators of the prevalence and character of anxiety in contemporary societies, the author argues that the `sociological imagination' has yet to provide a sufficient account of the interrelationship between representations of social problems in the public sphere and the variety of anxieties which individuals may encounter in their `personal troubles of milieu'.
TL;DR: The work of Pierre Bourdieu owes much of its distinctive qualities to its reflexive character, to the incisive and recurrent analysis of what it means to practise social science, to be an academic, or to speak out as an intellectual as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The work of Pierre Bourdieu owes much of its distinctive qualities to its reflexive character, to the incisive and recurrent analysis of what it means to practise social science, to be an academic, or to speak out as an intellectual. The sociology of the intellectual world for Bourdieu is not so much a particular research specialty as an indispensable precondition for social scientific research. Reflexivity in this sense is a working method, recognizable in all of his various undertakings, whether they concern his research and teaching, the publishing of Liber and Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, or his current activities in finding ways to redefine and revive the critical role of intellectuals.1 If, in contrast to this reflexive stance, there is anything lacking in Bourdieu’s writings, it is indeed the plain and spontaneous adherence to the established intellectual models. Bourdieu never quite identified himself with what was readily available, neither with the professorial fate of the academic specialist, nor with the Sartrean figure of the ‘total intellectual’. For a young French philosopher, originating from a province at about maximum distance from the capital, who had made it to the Ecole normale superieure, it was rather unusual, to say the least, to start ethnographic and sociological fieldwork in Algeria. Bourdieu’s subsequent work, marked by an unfailing refusal of the predominant dichotomies (theory/ research, objectivism/subjectivism, holism/individualism), testifies to the same unease with the primary divisions of the academic universe. His inability and unwillingness to be satisfied with the existing options is aptly illustrated by the dictum he quotes from Karl Krauss, the Viennese critic and writer: ‘Were I forced to choose between two evils, I would choose neither one’ (Bourdieu, 1997: 129). This inclination, visible in his way of constructing sentences and developing arguments, is at the root of acclaimed innovations in various research fields, and has, more generally, led him to conceive of social science as a reflexive endeavour. Bourdieu’s use of neither-nor reasoning is no rhetorical device, commonly employed to nestle oneself comfortably in the middle of two (often fictitious) extremes, but a way of gaining distance from the dominant views, allowing a reflection upon what is at stake for whom, and why some things are conceivable from one point of view, whereas others are not. This reflexive urge, which simultaneously questions a specific object and those who question the object in question, is present from his earliest work onwards. European Journal of Social Theory 2(3): 298–306
TL;DR: Meditations pascaliennes as discussed by the authors is a highly idiosyncratic, even odd, book that juts out in the landscape of contemporary social thought, and it is bursting with paradoxes, which, its author reminds us, means a breach of the doxa.
Abstract: Meditations pascaliennes is a highly idiosyncratic, even odd, book that juts out in the landscape of contemporary social thought. Part (anti-)philosophical treatise, part manifesto for a resolutely historicist conception of social action, structure and knowledge, and part theoretical stock-taking, explication and extension of a distinctive set of methodological stances and analytical devices tested on a vast and rugged empirical terrain, it is bursting with paradoxes – which, its author reminds us, means a breach of the doxa: here the accepted, taken-for-granted, ways of thinking (and, indeed, being) that undergird all scholarly activity, starting with the historic division and muffled rivalry between philosophy and sociology.1 In this long-gestating, hybrid sequel to Outline of a Theory of Practice and Homo Academicus, Pierre Bourdieu turns the weapons of theoretical reason on to theoretical reason itself and mobilizes the arsenal of philosophy to exorcise the philosophical intellectualism which he regards as the single major impediment to an adequate understanding of practice, power and society. He asserts the radical historicity of social science but also undercuts the facile relativism currently in vogue under the label of ‘postmodernism’. He ruins the claim of philosophy to pure thought and explodes its core tenets in epistemology, aesthetics and ethics, European Journal of Social Theory 2(3): 275–281
TL;DR: A close reading of Derrida's critique of Mauss's classic, The Gift, and its revision through Charles Baudelaire's ''The Counterfeit Coin'' can be found in this article.
Abstract: This article is a close reading of Jacques Derrida's critique of Marcel Mauss's classic, The Gift, and its revision through Charles Baudelaire's `The Counterfeit Coin'. Derrida's rejection of any exchange/reciprocity relation in the gift as an immoral binding of free subjects strangely accommodates the current ideological crisis of the gift in welfare societies. Moreover, Derrida's textual substitution of Baudelaire for Mauss repeats the counterfeit practice on which his own aporia of the gift is based.
TL;DR: The authors argue that most sociologists and social anthropologists, and many other social scientists, have been much more cautious and tentative in their claims than post-modernists have claimed.
Abstract: Postmodernist thinkers have often claimed that there is something like a `modernist' model of theory and metatheory in the social sciences which is objectivistic, dogmatic, and generally over-ambitious, aiming to dominate the theoretical landscape like a modernist skyscraper. This paper suggests that there is little to support such a view, and that most sociologists and social anthropologists, and many other social scientists, have been much more cautious and tentative in their claims than postmodernists have claimed. The alleged distinctiveness of postmodern social science is therefore itself open to question. The paper includes a discussion of reflection and reflexivity in realist philosophy of science and in the social theory of Habermas and Bourdieu.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the disparity between the position explicitly put forward in the debate with Beck and Giddens and the cognitive position which implicitly comes into play throughout his relevant essays.
Abstract: Proceeding from the debate opened by Beck, Giddens and Lash, this article seeks to clear the way for a more consistent and coherent concept of reflexivity in relation to the cultural-symbolic foundations of society Seeing that Lash in his contribution to the debate inadvertently raises a key problem, ie the board cognitive problem, the paper develops a critique of his hermeneutic culturalism It focuses on the disparity between the position explicitly put forward in the debate with Beck and Giddens and the cognitive position which implicitly comes into play throughout his relevant essays The disparity first appears in his treatment of the problem of mediation, but it comes to a head in his appropriation of Bourdieu The argument is supported by elements of a socio-cognitive theory which has been gaining visibility in social theory and in the philosophy of social science While the article is critical of Lash, its overall aim is to strengthen his contribution to the debate
TL;DR: In this article, the moral consequentiality for television viewers of representations and reports of the suffering of others has been discussed, and the authors use an essay by Michael Ignatieff as an opportunity to develop the thesis that any consideration of the relationship between television and morality must centrally concern itself with the complex exchanges between TV and its viewers.
Abstract: A relatively under-analysed theme in the sociology of the media is the moral consequentiality for television viewers of representations and reports of the suffering of others. The theme has been broached by Michael Ignatieff, and this article uses an essay by him as an opportunity to develop the thesis that any consideration of the relationship between television and morality must centrally concern itself with the complex exchanges between television and its viewers. The article seeks to offer some initial themes and theses about the moral consequentiality of television.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors tried to bring to light some of the Sartrean roots of Touraine's early theoretical tools and to reconstruct his intellectual development through the 1970s and 1980s when he formulated his ideas on the emergence of social movements within post-industrial society.
Abstract: From the beginning of his career Alain Touraine tried to develop a heterodox sociological terminology which promised to open up new ways of thinking about the dynamics of modern societies. This article tries to bring to light some of the Sartrean roots of Touraine's early theoretical tools and to reconstruct his intellectual development through the 1970s and 1980s when he formulated his ideas on the emergence of social movements within post-industrial society. It will be argued that Touraine's major works of the 1990s - though not without some theoretical problems - offer fresh insights into the conditions of modernity and are able to correct and modify interpretations of modernity of major theorists such as Habermas and Taylor.
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between Foucault's general concerns and his neglected work on non-western societies is examined by examining two related questions: what role does exoticism play in his theoretical imaginary, and how does his work on Japan, Iran and the non-Western world contribute to a different understanding of his thinking.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between Foucault's general concerns and his neglected work on non-Western societies. It does so by examining two related questions. Firstly, what role does exoticism play in his theoretical imaginary? Secondly, how does his work on Japan, Iran and the non-Western world contribute to a different understanding of his thinking? As such, four general themes will be followed in order to underline the interplay of cultural difference with Foucault's broader projects: the limits of Western reason, genealogical schemes of history, power and resistance, and, finally, subjectification. Throughout, an attempt will be made to highlight the interdependence and mutual constitution of Foucault's thought and matters of cultural alterity.
TL;DR: In contrast to modernism in social theory, the authors argues that social theory not only cannot succeed in suppressing the questions of the inescapable and the attainable but indeed needs to be reconceptualized such that an understanding of inescapability and attainability becomes one of its organizing elements.
Abstract: It is a background assumption of much of social science - here called modernist social science - that, in principle, there are neither questions that it cannot decline nor answers that cannot be found. Modernist social science does not accept the issues of inescapability and of attainability; they are names for adversaries that need to be fought against. In contrast to modernism in social theory, this article argues that social theory not only cannot succeed in suppressing the questions of the inescapable and the attainable but indeed needs to be reconceptualized such that an understanding of inescapability and attainability becomes one of its organizing elements. The argument is developed by discussing three central problematics of social theory - the continuity of self, the certainty of knowledge and the viability of the polity - and by showing that an irreducible pluralism of modes of social theorizing exists which includes positions that emphasize the questions of inescapability and attainability. The...
TL;DR: Strydom et al. as mentioned in this paper presented a paper "The contemporary Habermas: towards triple contingency?", European Journal of Social Theory, 2(2), pp. 253-263.
Abstract: Title The contemporary Habermas: towards triple contingency? Author(s) Strydom, Piet Publication date 1999-05-01 Original citation Strydom, P. (1999) 'The contemporary Habermas: towards triple contingency?', European Journal of Social Theory, 2(2), pp. 253-263. doi: 10.1177/136843199002002008 Type of publication Article (peer-reviewed) Link to publisher's version https://doi.org/10.1177/136843199002002008 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/136843199002002008 Access to the full text of the published version may require a subscription. Rights © 1999, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Item downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10468/7900
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