1st Edition

New Horizons in Sociological Theory and Research The Frontiers of Sociology at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century

Edited By Luigi Tomasi Copyright 2001

    This title was first published in 2001. This book tackles the important issue of the tasks that confront sociology in the third millennium. It examines the sociological interpretations of the World-Wide revolution which - amid unprecedented scientific and technological progress and the globalization of markets - has generated new inequalities, poverty, structural unemployment and mass conditionings. A number of the most distinguished living sociologists (including Boudon, Beck, Eisenstadt, Tiryakain, Wieviorka) furnish profound and innovative interpretations of changes in world society, while outlining the frontiers of sociological research for the 21st Century. The contributions to the book not only prompt reflection on the structure and organization of sociological research, but also revitalize sociological inquiry by conducting original and stimulating analysis of theoretical and methodological issues - an undertaking essential for the survival of the discipline itself.

    Contents: Sociology for the twenty-first century: necessary reconceptualizations, Luigi Tomasi. Theory and Research: New Horizons: Sociology between scientism and aestheticism, or can sociology be positivist today?, Raymond Boudon; Post-classical sociology or the twilight of sociology?, Michel Wieviorka; The challenge of multiple modernities, Shmuel N. Eisenstadt; Modern societies as knowledge societies, Nico Stehr and Volker Meja; Freedom versus control in post-modern society: a relational approach, Pierpaolo Donati. The New Realities of Today: Cosmopolitan Society, Globalization, Ethnicity, Nationality, Immigration: The cosmopolitan society and its enemies, Ulrich Beck; Sociology after the revolution in Eastern Europe: can it survive?, Zdzistaw Krasnodebski; Globalization and peripheral identity, Talis Tisenkopfs; MindĀ and collective consciousness, Steven Grosby; Beyond national and post-national models: transnational spaces and immigrant integration, Thomas Faist. The New Frontiers of Sociology: Some challenges for sociology in the new era, Edward A. Tiryakian; Toward a science of global marginality, Anthony J. Blasi; New horizons in religious evolution, Yves Lambert; Sociology in the twenty-first century: a discipline at the crossroads between senility or regeneration, Dirk Kaesler; The idea of alternative discourses, Syed Farid Alatas; Index.