Anthony Giddens and modern social theory / / Kenneth H. Tucker, Jr

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910450259003321
• Autore: Tucker Kenneth H.
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: London ; ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : , : Sage, , 1998
• ISBN: 1-134-86601-1; 1-280-14924-8; 9786610149247; 0-203-98061-1
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (255 p.)
• Disciplina: 301.01; 301.092; 301/.01; 306.092
• Soggetti: Sociology - Methodology; Postmodernism; Social structure; Sociology - Great Britain; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 222-231) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: BOOK COVER; HALF-TITLE; TITLE; COPYRIGHT; DEDICATION; CONTENTS; PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; 1 INTRODUCTION; WHY GIDDENS AND NOT HABERMAS?; ON THE STYLE AND ARGUMENTATION OF THIS BOOK; PARTING THOUGHTS; 2 ANTHONY GIDDENS ; GIDDENS AND THE END OF SOCIOLOGY; CRITICISMS OF GIDDENS; GIDDENS AND POSTMODERNISM; AN OVERVIEW OF GIDDENS'S MAJOR CRITICS; SUMMARY, AND THE PARAMETERS OF THE PRESENT CRITIQUE; 3 THE NEW VERSUS THE OLD RULES OF SOCIOLOGICAL METHOD; GROUNDING HERMENEUTICS; SCHOPENHAUER'S CRITIQUE OF KANT; SOCIOLOGY AS THE SCIENCE OF DISCOVERIES; THE NORMAL VERSUS THE PATHOLOGICAL; THE ONE, WELL-DESIGNED EXPERIMENTCONCLUSIONS; 4 THE ROLE OF DESIRE IN AGENCY AND STRUCTURE; DENATURING THE HUMAN AGENT; ; FAITH AND TRUST; SEARCHING FOR THE HEART OF SOCIOLOGY; HOW GIDDENS ATTEMPTS TO ACCOUNT FOR EMOTION IN HUMAN HISTORY; THE PARADOX OF AGENCY LEADING TO LESS AGENCY; DURKHEIM'S DEPICTION OF FAITH IN RELATION TO EMOTIONAL LIFE; THE EMOTIONAL COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE; CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS; 5 GIDDENS'S POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY; GIDDENS'S CRITIQUE OF MARX; ELABORATING GIDDENS'S POSITION ON NATIONALISM AND THE NATION-STATE; GIDDENS ON POST-TRADITION; GIDDENS'S VERSION OF THE END OF HISTORYTHE MEANINGS OF BOSNIA; FROM BOSNIA TO RUSSIA; CONCLUSIONS; 6 GIDDENS'S MODERNISM LITE; THE MUTUAL UNAWARENESS OF GIDDENS AND BAUDRILLARD; POSTMODERNITY TRANSFORMED INTO MODERNITY LITE; THE ROLE OF THE INFORMATION MEDIA; CONCLUSIONS; 7 UNLIMITED AGENCY AS THE NEW ANOMIE; PARTIAL AGENCY; MENTAL ILLNESS AS A PROBLEM WITH AGENCY; CAN EXCESSIVE AGENCY LEAD TO ANOMIE?; LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR A RECONTEXTUALIZED READING OF DURKHEIM'S CONCEPT OF ANOMIE; ANOMIE AS SECULAR SIN; CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS; 8 CONCLUSIONS; MIXING METAPHORS; CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGISTS AS THE LEISURE CLASSSUMMARY; NOTES; REFERENCES; INDEX
• Sommario/riassunto: Anthony Giddens is arguably the world's leading sociologist. In this controversial contribution to the Giddens debate, Stjepan Mestrovic takes up and criticizes the major themes of his work - particularly the concept of 'high modernity' as opposed to 'postmodernity' and his attempted construction of a 'synthetic' tradition based on human agency and structure.<BR> Testing Giddens' theories against what is happening in the real world from genocide in Africa to near secession in Quebec, Mestrovic discerns in the construction of synthetic traditions not the promise of freedom held out by Giddens b