Showing papers in "European Journal of Social Theory in 2011"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore how the order-of-worth framework has been applied to empirical studies of organizations, focusing on the coexistence of competing orders of worth in organizations.
Abstract: Different notions of multiple rationalities have recently been applied to describe the phenomena of co-existence of competing rationalities in organizations. These include institutional pluralism, institutional logics, competing rationalities and pluralistic contexts. The French pragmatic sociologists Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot have contributed to this line of research with a sophisticated theoretical framework of orders of worth, which has been applied in an increasing number of empirical studies. This article explores how the order of worth framework has been applied to empirical studies of organizations. First, I summarize the basic ideas of the framework, stressing the aspects of special relevance for studies of organizations. Second, I review the empirical studies focusing on the coexistence of competing orders of worth in organizations showing that the order of worth framework primarily has been related to three main themes in organizational research: non-profit and co-operative organization...
170 citations
TL;DR: The authors distinguishes between two ideal-typical forms of social capital (i.e., reciprocity and trust) based on the meaning of the social relations that embed them, i.e. co-presence, reciprocity, and memory.
Abstract: The social capital literature has focused on the functional and structural properties of social relations, partially neglecting the way in which they are experienced by individuals. Drawing on anthropological and social theory, this article distinguishes two ideal-typical forms of social capital — reciprocity and trust — based on the meaning of the social relations that embed them. Reciprocity is the type of social capital embedded within personal relations, triply defined in the factual, social and temporal dimensions by co-presence, reciprocity and memory, respectively. Trust is the type of social capital embedded within relations with strangers, defined by the condition of impersonality or anonymity. These two types of social capital cannot be reduced to extremes in a continuum, nor are they fungible, and while reciprocity is by definition particularistic (this is the source of its strength as a linking mechanism), trust has a universalistic potential. Analytical and empirical implications of this dist...
125 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a special issue of the European Journal of Social Theory is devoted to the socology of critical capacity, a research program that is now increasingly gaining attention and popularity, as well as meeting critique beyond its original academic context, France.
Abstract: This special issue of the European Journal of Social Theory engages with a research programme – the ‘sociology of critical capacity’ or, in short, ‘pragmatic sociology’ – that is now increasingly gaining attention and popularity, as well as meeting critique, beyond its original academic context, France. One of the main aims of this approach is to reintroduce a moral-political dimension into sociological research. As argued by one of its main proponents, Luc Boltanski,
95 citations
TL;DR: The authors of On Justification, Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot, took quite different directions in developing pragmatic sociology further, also as a consequence of their own earlier work.
Abstract: Pragmatic sociology – as a distinct, new type of French social science – probably became best-known in the English-speaking world because of the major contribution On Justification: Economies of Worth, published in English in 2006, but already introduced in a number of articles in the European Journal of Social Theory in 1999, as well as through an earlier article by Nicolas Dodier in 1993. On Justification is, however, probably best understood as a ‘travail d’étape’ (Breviglieri et al., 2009: 8), an intermediate stage in a much larger and highly original social-theoretical enterprise. In this, however, the two authors of On Justification, Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot, took quite different directions in developing pragmatic sociology further, also as a consequence of their own earlier work. Before collaborating on On Justification, an important part of Thévenot’s work was on categorization and classification, in terms of making entities more general, and in a broader sense, on conventional forms in their relation to action coordination, in particular in the context of the study of labour and organizations (the ‘economy of conventional forms’). Much of his work since On Justification – which, in his own terms, constitutes an ‘attempt to put the perspective adopted in On Justification [a perspective viewed from the public, PB] upside down’ (Thévenot, 2009a: 40; translation PB) – draws on earlier insights while developing a rich, novel perspective on the analysis of social life. Recently, as documented most importantly in L’Action au Pluriel (Thévenot, 2006), as well as in a range of recent articles, Thévenot has explored the dimensions of social life ‘under the public’ as a condition to enlarge the scope of public critique
50 citations
TL;DR: Basaure et al. as mentioned in this paper show that Boltanski's recent research on various subjects, such as abortion and procreation, can be understood as part of a developing research programme that has been partly set in motion by the divers critiques raised against the sociological perspective exposed in On Justification.
Abstract: In their important work On Justification: The Economies of Worth Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot (2006) develop the notion of a ‘sociology of critique’, which has made a decisive contribution to our understanding of what can be called an ordinary sense of justice. In this interview, I take the model worked out in On Justification as a point of departure to ask about the various conceptual consequences it has had on the further development of the sociological theory of Luc Boltanski. The interview shows that Boltanski’s recent research on various subjects – such as capitalism (Boltanski and Chiapello, 2005a), abortion and procreation (Boltanski, 2004), and distant suffering (Boltanski, 1999) – can be understood as part of a developing research programme that has been partly set in motion by the divers critiques raised against the sociological perspective exposed in On Justification. In other words, Boltanski takes these criticisms seriously by responding to them through a transformation and expansion of his research program without abandoning the kernel of his pragmatic social theory. LB 1⁄4 Luc Boltanski; MB 1⁄4 Mauro Basaure MB I would like to start with a slightly problematic question: Is it true that, in France, On Justification was implemented not only as an instrument of sociological research, but also – in the context of administration theory – as an instrument for conflict management strategies? What is your opinion on this type of reception of your sociology? LB That happens to be the way it is: once a book has been published, the author no longer has control over how and in which contexts it is used. An author is not always content with the reception of his work, and I was not always at ease with the way On
46 citations
TL;DR: The call for a more sociological approach to the study of the European Union, reflected in a number of recent survey works by sociologists and political scientists, offers exciting new prospects fo...
Abstract: The call for a more sociological approach to the study of the European Union, reflected in a number of recent survey works by sociologists and political scientists, offers exciting new prospects fo...
36 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the most relevant current transformations of the idea of the social in contemporary European welfare capitalism and their connections with the new spirit of capitalism, and argue that the currently dominant institutional regime of justification does not have a univocal, one-way fate of development.
Abstract: The article inquires into some of the most relevant current transformations of the idea of the social in contemporary European welfare capitalism. Some crucial institutional ideas — employability and activation — of EU welfare capitalism and their connections with the new spirit of capitalism — network capitalism — are discussed. In particular, the way these ideas contribute to enacting institutional regimes of justification, framing in this a new idea of the social, is explored. The features of the latter will be deepened with particular concern for two constitutive elements of European societal self-representation — individualization (as a social ideal and project) and publicness (as a fundamental characteristic of the institutional programme) — and regarding emerging paradoxes characterizing their current development. Arguments will be advanced in order to show that the currently dominant institutional regime of justification does not have a univocal, one-way fate of development, and both ties and oppo...
35 citations
TL;DR: The authors studied the role of the intellectual in a cultural trauma, a public discourse in which the foundations of collective identity are brought up for reflection, through an analysis of six assassinations.
Abstract: As opposed to the intelligentsia, a historically specific group, and the professions, those who perform intellectual labor, the intellectual is here understood as the performance of a social role, one which involves the articulation of ideas communicated to a broad audience. This implies at least two distinct ways of speaking about and studying the intellectual. The first is to look at the way various social actors take on the task of articulating ideas in public discourses. The second is to study how particular persons aspire to the intellectual, a role whose meaning they inherit as part of a tradition which must be interpreted and reinvented. Through an analysis of six assassinations, the article shows how intellectuals can act as carrier groups in what is called a cultural trauma, a public discourse in which the foundations of collective identity are brought up for reflection. The six assassinations are Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in the United States, Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh in the Net...
33 citations
TL;DR: The authors identifies civilizational analysis as one response to a recent crisis in the sociology of large-scale social configurations and explores how far the concept of civilization can go in a modern world.
Abstract: This article identifies civilizational analysis as one response to a recent crisis in the sociology of large-scale social configurations and explores how far the concept of civilization can go in a...
31 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the implications of a specific type of anger (called "civic" anger) with regard to the place of emotions and their relation to regimes of justification in the framework of Boltanski and Thevenot's sociology of critical capacity.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to explore the implications of a specific type of anger — termed here ‘civic’ anger — with regard to the place of emotions and their relation to regimes of justification in the framework of Boltanski and Thevenot’s sociology of critical capacity. Drawing upon interviews with a sample of Israeli philanthropic mega-donors, it will highlight the distinctive features and context-bound operation of civic anger as a type of moral and political emotion that has not yet received its due conceptualization. In the case at hand here, civic philanthropic anger will be shown to correspond to a cultural configuration that included regimes of justification equivalent to those already identified by Boltanski and Thevenot (mainly ‘civic’ and ‘industrial’), but also allowed a distinctive cluster of emotions to develop into an additional, ‘quasi’ regime of justification (‘benevolence’). As such, it points to ways in which a renewed sociology of morality needs enlist the fecund idea of regimes of j...
29 citations
TL;DR: The concept of responsibilization that originally emerged out of the context of the so-called Governmentality Studies is now widely used in various social sciences to describe a governing technolog....
Abstract: The concept of responsibilization that originally emerged out of the context of the so-called Governmentality Studies is now widely used in various social sciences to describe a governing technolog...
TL;DR: The authors discuss the status and role of politics in the pragmatic sociology of critique and argue that pragmatic sociology tends to ignore questions of the constitution of politics, and suggest that one way of bringing the foundational aspect upfront is by conceptualizing and studying defiance, including forms of explicit (dissent) and implicit critique (resistance) of the existing order.
Abstract: The article discusses the status and role of politics — in its various facets — in the pragmatic sociology of critique. We focus on a number of different dimensions of politics — politics-as-justification, politics-as-distribution, politics-as-constitution, and politics-as-defiance — that can said to be of importance for a pragmatic sociology of critique, but that have not all been taken up equally in this approach. We situate pragmatic sociology in a tradition of thought that views politics as emerging in the settlement of disputes over differences without resorting to violence. However, we argue that pragmatic sociology tends to ignore questions of the constitution of politics, and suggest that one way of bringing the foundational aspect upfront is by conceptualizing and studying defiance, including forms of explicit (dissent) and implicit critique (resistance) of the existing order.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that legal pluralism and in particular the question of Shari'a tribunals may prove to be a more decisive test of Western multiculturalism.
Abstract: Since 9/11, the possibilities for pluralism and tolerance have been severely tested by a discourse of terrorism and security. The development of an intelligent and cosmopolitan understanding between religious communities in Europe and America has been compromised by a range of legal and political responses to terrorism. While the debate about the berqa has clearly indicated the problems relating to Muslim cultural differences, we argue that legal pluralism and in particular the question of Shari’a tribunals may prove to be a more decisive test of Western multiculturalism. This article examines the many criticisms raised against religious arbitration in domestic affairs and considers the presence of the Shari’a at various levels of society, claiming that the evolution of Sharia-mindedness is compatible both with a faith-based life and with liberal ideals. However, the problem with religious courts lies elsewhere, namely with the fragmentation of social life and the erosion of citizenship. The article concl...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the shift from a Fordist to a post-Fordist regime of political economy has had positive consequences for sociology, including the reinforcement of critical sociologies (Burawoy, 2005; Steinmetz, 2005) and that, although disciplinary hierarchies have been destabilized, what is emerging is a new form of instrumental knowledge, that of applied interdisciplinary social studies.
Abstract: A number of commentators have suggested that the shift from a Fordist to a post-Fordist regime of political economy has had positive consequences for sociology, including the reinforcement of critical sociologies (Burawoy, 2005; Steinmetz, 2005). This article argues that, although disciplinary hierarchies have been destabilized, what is emerging is a new form of instrumental knowledge, that of applied interdisciplinary social studies. This development has had a particular impact upon sociology. Savage and Burrows (2007), for example, argue that sociological knowledge no longer has a privileged claim to authority and is increasingly in competition with social knowledge produced by the private sector and agencies of the public sector. The response of many sociologists to such claims has been to reassert the importance of the discipline as the purveyor of critically relevant knowledge about society. The article traces how the idea of internal critique within sociology has developed to embrace ‘knowing capita...
TL;DR: The authors explored the conflict between collaborationist and Resistance intellectuals at the end of the Second World War in France, and focused in particular on the purge of collaborationist intellectuals which culminated in several high profile trials.
Abstract: This article is one of the first sociological explorations of power struggles between intellectuals where matters of life and death are literally at stake. It counters the prevailing tendency within sociology to study intellectuals within confined academic institutions where power struggles are limited to matters of symbolic and institutional recognition. This study explores the conflict between collaborationist and Resistance intellectuals at the end of the Second World War in France, and it focuses in particular on the purge of collaborationist intellectuals which culminated in several high profile trials. This article shows that the arguments and meta-arguments put forward in these trials led to broader intellectual debates outside the courtroom. These debates not only centred on the notion of the writer’s responsibility, but also dealt with anxieties about the disintegrative forces of modern society. Whereas collaborationist intellectuals portrayed their writing as either separate from politics or res...
TL;DR: The third phase of modernity in Latin America, South Asia, and China is defined in this article, where the authors identify specific modernizing moves which imply individualizing comparisons as well as encompassing comparisons in relation to these areas and countries.
Abstract: This article develops an argument about what it defines as the ‘third phase of modernity’ and tackles, in a comparative manner, the cases of Latin America (especially Brazil), South Asia (especially India) and China. It tries to identify specific modernizing moves which imply individualizing comparisons as well as encompassing comparisons in relation to these areas and countries. It builds its argument from a few theoretical assumptions and moves in an inductive manner in order to dislocate the discussion of modernity from its strong referents in the West and the conceptual definitions that stem from this. The article tries also to connect the discussion of modernity to debates about development. It proposes a multidimensional approach and analyzes the main dimensions of contemporary modernity and modernizing moves in those regions and countries.
TL;DR: The authors explores the emerging field of the sociology of translation and, at the same time, outlines the relevance of translation for sociology with respect to the global production and circulation of sociological works, arguing that an awareness of the complex nature of translation is fundamental for a self-understanding of the sociological endeavour.
Abstract: This article explores the emerging field of the sociology of translation and, at the same time, outlines the relevance of translation for sociology with respect to the global production and circulation of sociological works. Drawing on already existing accounts developed in interdisciplinary translation studies, it is argued that an awareness of the complex nature of translation is fundamental for a self-understanding of the sociological endeavour. The article is divided into three main parts which deal, first, with the role of translation in the international circulation of social theory and its importance for an intellectual history of the discipline; second, its intervention in sociological research and the methodological implications thereof, and third, with a reflexive approach to translation in the sociological field.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a model of performative agency in capitalist societies, and apply this analysis within an agonal theory of civil society that is driven by the individual's performative participation in associations that compete within institutional settings.
Abstract: The article presents a model of performative agency in capitalist societies. The first section reconsiders the problem of third-dimensional power as developed by Steven Lukes, focusing on the relationships between universal human needs and social forms. The second section uses the concepts of the ‘self’, ‘I’ and ‘person’ to characterize the relationships between human nature, affect, individual alienation, social institutions and personal judgement. Alienation is argued to be inherent in human agency, rather than being solely created by capitalism. The next section applies this analysis within an agonal theory of civil society that is driven by the individual’s performative participation in associations that compete within institutional settings. Finally the article considers the political ramifications of this model, rejecting contemporary constitutionalist approaches in favour of a revised form of pluralist associationalism. Throughout, the article warns of the dangerous marginalization of emotions (or ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the contribution of the pragmatic sociology of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot to the fortification of this political dimension, by tracing a line of argument through several of Boltanski's studies in the direction of a political-sociological axis.
Abstract: Axel Honneth’s development of the Frankfurt School’s Critical Social Theory has increased the amount of attention that is paid to the dimension of political praxis by emphasizing the social struggle for recognition. Nevertheless, the political-sociological axis of this tradition remains relatively unexplored and unclear. Taking this as a starting point, I investigate the contribution that the pragmatic sociology of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot could make to the fortification of this political dimension. I do this by tracing a line of argument through several of Boltanski’s studies in the direction of a political-sociological axis. I show that this aspect of Boltanski’s sociology can be understood as a very fruitful analysis of processes of political articulation that may help Critical Theory overcome a political deficiency.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess Arnason's civilizational theory and methodology and their application to non-Western civilizations from a historical-comparative sociological perspective, and assess the application of non-western civilizations in the same context.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to assess Arnason’s civilizational theory and methodology and their application to non-Western civilizations from a historical-comparative sociological perspective. Altho...
TL;DR: In this paper, an Islamic perspective on the process of singularization of power from its cultural bases and reconstruction of a modern collective identity merging the steering capacities and the participative ambitions of an emerging urban intelligentsia is presented.
Abstract: This article engages with Johann Arnason’s approach to the entanglements of culture and power in comparative civilizational analysis by simultaneously reframing the themes of the civilizing process and the public sphere. It comments and expands upon some key insights of Arnason concerning the work of Norbert Elias and Jurgen Habermas by adopting an ‘Islamic perspective’ on the processes of singularization of power from its cultural bases and of reconstruction of a modern collective identity merging the steering capacities and the participative ambitions of an emerging urban intelligentsia. The Islamic perspective provides insights into the interplay between civilizing processes and the modes through which cultural traditions innervate a modern public sphere. By revisiting key remarks of Arnason on Elias and Habermas, the Islamic perspective gains original contours, reflecting the search for a type of modernity that is eccentric to the mono-civilizational axis of the Western-led, global civilizing process....
TL;DR: In this paper, a stringent criterion for a public intellectual is proposed: persons who are simultaneously major creative intellectuals, and successful political leaders, using data from the careers of 2700 philosophers throughout world history, and social scientists in recent centuries.
Abstract: A stringent criterion for a public intellectual is proposed: persons who are simultaneously major creative intellectuals, and successful political leaders. Using data from the careers of 2700 philosophers throughout world history, and social scientists in recent centuries, the article concludes that three kinds of political failure by intellectuals are prominent: (1) failure to attain political office; (2) failure while in office; and (3) failure of political influence from adoption of one’s ideas. On the whole, major intellectuals are not good at politics; and politicians do not make outstanding intellectuals. The skills and pressures of the two spheres are too different.
TL;DR: In this paper, a distinction in the paradigm of multiple modernities between a comparative civilizational and a post-secular perspective is introduced, arguing that the former perspective helps us to understand the latter.
Abstract: This article introduces a distinction in the paradigm of multiple modernities between a comparative-civilizational and a post-secular perspective. It argues that the former perspective helps us to ...
TL;DR: Arnason's interpretative framework is located within the nascent field of post-transcendental phenomenology, which he elaborates via the overlapping problematics of cultural articulations of the world as an inter-cultural horizon, and the human condition as various modes of being in the world as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The article reconstructs the unfinished dialogue between Arnason and Castoriadis, with a particular emphasis on the problematic of world articulation. Arnason's thought is situated as reconfiguring classical sociological constellations, especially as they pertain to the revitalization of the civilizational problematic and the emphasis on the philosophical dimension of sociological investigation. His interpretative framework is located within the nascent field of post-transcendental phenomenology, which he elaborates via the overlapping problematics of cultural articulations of the world as an inter-cultural horizon, and the human condition as various modes of being-in-the-world. Arnason's encounter with Castoriadis is considered. Despite the many points of fruitful contact, Castoriadis' neglect of the phenomenological question of the world as a 'shared horizon' is, in Arnason's view, too great to overcome; Arnason looks instead to Weber, Merleau-Ponty and, more recently, Patocka for interpretative resources. Although Castoriadis' elucidation of the world proceeds 'in fragments', the article contends that hermeneutical reconstruction of his thought reveals openings onto the problematic of elemental world orders that can further the dialogue with Arnason.
TL;DR: Kendall G, Woodward I and Skrbis Z as mentioned in this paper (2009) The Sociology of Cosmopolitanism: Globalization, Identity, Culture and Government. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Abstract: Archibugi D (2008) The Global Commonwealth of Citizens: Towards Cosmopolitan Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Holton R (2009) Cosmopolitanism: New Thinking and New Directions. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Kendall G, Woodward I and Skrbis Z (2009) The Sociology of Cosmopolitanism: Globalization, Identity, Culture and Government. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Kurasawa F (2007) The Work of Global Justice: Human Rights as Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Turner B (2008) Rights and Virtues. Oxford: Bardwell Press.
TL;DR: The critical theory of the Frankfurt School appears to have been an important influence, but Delanty as discussed by the authors has also sought to make links with the hermeneutic tradition, making use of the Czech Dialectics of the Concrete.
Abstract: GD 1⁄4 Gerard Delanty; JPA 1⁄4 Johann Arnason; PB 1⁄4 Paul Blokker GD It would be interesting to begin with an account of the early influences on your work. For instance, the critical theory of the Frankfurt School appears to have been an important influence, but you have also sought to make links with the hermeneutic tradition. JPA The encounter with the Frankfurt School was important, but it was not the beginning. I came to Frankfurt with a background in phenomenological Marxism, especially the Czech variety represented by Karel Kosı́k’s Dialectics of the Concrete, and this preparation was crucial for my understanding and appropriation of ideas developed within the Frankfurt universe of discourse (one can hardly speak of a unified Frankfurt school or tradition – we are, rather, dealing with a whole cluster of alternative paradigms of critical theory) (Kosı́k, 1976). The successively dominant versions were all of importance for my work, but each of them seemed to call for a different kind of response. After the monograph on Marcuse, whose own pioneering contributions to phenomenological Marxism could serve as starting-points for critical appraisal of his own later uses of Marxian sources, I took a more sustained interest in Adorno, but ultimately came to see his conception of critical theory as a blind alley. Habermas’s much more complex and methodically developed project was another matter. Initial attempts to criticize
TL;DR: The authors argues that Arnason's writings succeed in pushing civilizational analysis in a much-needed direction coming from an act, and argues that the late Shmuel N Eisenstadt's work is a significant contribution to this direction.
Abstract: This article argues that Arnason’s writings succeed in pushing civilizational analysis — most prominently developed by the late Shmuel N Eisenstadt — in a much-needed direction Coming from an act
TL;DR: The authors explored how intellectuals have commented on, participated in or generated political events, and explored the various ways in which intellectuals have been involved in political affairs, including the Dreyfus affair, which was one of the defining moments in the development of the French Third Republic.
Abstract: This mini-issue of the journal explores the various ways in which intellectuals have been involved in political affairs. The three contributions explore how intellectuals have commented on, participated in or generated political events. The topic has contemporary relevance in the current climate of economic austerity and heightened political sensitivities in which intellectuals must decide whether and how to address a wider public. However, the political involvement of intellectuals also has a longer pedigree, which arguably goes to the heart of the concept ‘intellectual’. The intellectual and political spheres are indeed closely connected in so far as the notion of the intellectual had its origins in a political event – one of the defining moments in the development of the French Third Republic. The modern concept of the intellectual goes back to the Dreyfus affair; it was only in the late 1890s that the term gained currency and was used by both camps to refer to those who backed Dreyfus (see, for instance, Ory and Sirinelli, 1992: 5–8, 13–18; Harris, 2011). Anti-Dreyfusards used the term derogatively to refer to Dreyfusards, who were indeed often ‘men of letters’ or academics who made their case in writing, through petitions or newspaper articles. For anti-Dreyfusards, ‘intellectuals’ were uprooted and degenerate individuals (mostly Jewish, and definitely of foreign extraction) who mistakenly appealed to abstract principles at the expense of respect for French history and tradition. However, Dreyfusards quickly appropriated the term, stripping it of its negative connotations and using it publicly, if not proudly, to refer to themselves. In this context, the term ‘intellectual’ developed a distinctive meaning, which still resonates today. First, in terms of professional occupation, it referred to a broad category, including professors, students and novelists. Throughout the nineteenth century French academics and novelists tended to come from different social backgrounds, contrasting
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that there are signs of what might be termed a 'tertiary' phase of state formation, implicit in Arnason's discussion of advanced modernity.
Abstract: Johann Arnason’s exploration of the historical constellation of East Asia has helped reproblematize the conceptual framework of modernity and civilization. This article outlines Arnason’s innovations in civilizational analysis and social theory in the field of comparative studies of Japan. It sets out the terms on which a nuanced elaboration of Arnason’s framework could occur. Two areas warrant closer attention: state formation and the institution of capitalism. It is argued that there are signs of what might be termed a ‘tertiary’ phase of state formation, implicit in Arnason’s discussion of advanced modernity. Moreover, this phase brought Japan into close contact with the newly unfolding context of the West’s civilizational imaginary, particularly in its ideological expressions of evolutionism. The article ends on the problematic of capitalism, raising questions about further potential theoretical developments based on Arnason’s conclusions and other inventive studies of Japanese capitalism.