This book reconstructs and brings together the work of a number of social and political theorists in order to gain new insight on the emergence and character of modern Western society. It examines the intersection point of social theory and historical sociology in a new theoretical approach called "reflexive historical sociology".
There is analysis of the works of Max Weber, Michel Foucault, Norbert Elias, Eric Voegelin and a number of others. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 examines the works of Eric Voegelin, Norbert Elias, Lewis Mumford and Franz Borkenau. Part 2 is concerned with the major conceptual tools such as experience, liminality, process, symbolisation, figuration, order, dramatisation and reflexivity, and themes such as the history of forms of thought, subjectivity, knowledge and closed space and regulated time. Finally, the book examines the most important insights of the thinkers discussed, concerning the historical processes that led to modernity.
Part I: Reflexive Historical Sociologists 1. Norbert Elias 2. Franz Borkenau 3. Eric Voegelin 4. Lewis Mumford. Conclusion to Part I: Comparisons and Contrasts Part II: Visions of Modernity 5. The Protestant Spirit (Weber) 6. Court Society (Elias) 7. The Mechanical World Image (Borkenau) 8. Gnostic Revolt (Voegelin) 9. The New Megamachine (Mumford) 10. Disciplinary Society (Foucault). Conclusion to Part II: Modernity as Permanent Liminality. Concluding Remarks.
Biography
Arpad Szakolczai is Professor of Sociology at University College Cork.
'One cannot but hope that Szakolczai's ambitious, scholarly and stylish work will have the warm reception it deserves and that it will succeed in triggering genuine and fruitful debates.' - Angelos Mouzakitis, European Journal of Social Theory 4 (2)
