American Society: A Theory of Societal Community

ISBN-13: 9781594512278 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 537 str.

Talcott Parsons; Giuseppe Sciortino; Jeffrey C. Alexander

Opis

Never before published, American Society is the product of Talcott Parsons's last major theory-building project. During the 1970s, Parsons worked persistently to fulfill his earlier promise to produce "a general book on American society." The surviving manuscript, completed just a few weeks before his death, is just such a book. Beyond its rich reading of American society, it offers a systematic presentation and major revisions of his previous landmark theoretical positions: the attempt to elaborate a non-nostalgic theory of modernity, to link macro and micro perspectives, to defend the possibility of objective sociological knowledge, to analyze national specificities within the context of worldwide trends, to develop an adequate conception of societal integration grounded in fully pluralistic premises. Even after the passage of many years, the book imparts a remarkably provocative interpretation of US society and a creative approach to social theory.

Spis treści

Preface, by Giuseppe Sciortino, Foreword, by Jeffrey C. Alexander, Introduction: The Action of Social Structure, by Giuseppe Sciortino, Chapter 1 Introduction, Chapter 2 The Societal Community and Its Environments, Chapter 3 Some Highlights of the Historical Background, Chapter 4 Values and Other Structural Features of the Societal Community, Chapter 5 Some Substantive Structures of the Emerging Societal Community, Chapter 6 Social Class as Axis of Cleavage-Integration, Chapter 7 The Gemeinschaft Complex in American Society I: Ethnicity, Chapter 8 The Gemeinschaft Complex II: Kinship, Religion, Style of Life, Education, Chapter 9 Communication and Collective Decision Making: The Mass Media and the Political Process (Three Fragments), Chapter 10 Individuality and Institutionalized Individualism, Notes, Bibliography, Index, About the Editor

O autorze

Parsons, Talcott; Sciortino, Giuseppe