Social Theory for Old and New Modernities Essays on Society and Culture, 1976-2005

by Ferrarotti, Franco; McCarthy, Doyle E.; Macioti, Maria Immacolata

• ISBN13: 9780739115107
• ISBN10: 0739115103
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-07-02
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Franco Ferrarotti is widely regarded as the founder of postwar Italian sociology. Along with such figures as Leo Strauss, Edward Shils, David Riesman, Robert Merton, and Ralf Dahrendorf, he established the terms and texts of contemporary sociology after the Second World War. Social Theory for Old and New Modernities is a collection of Ferrarotti's essays that brings his work back into the forefront of sociology. His writings-on theory and ethnographic research, on immigration and multiculturalism, on religion and secularization-speak directly to today's social and political dilemmas and crises and offer sociologists a critical and enlivened vision of their discipline.

Author Biography

Franco Ferrarotti is professor emeritus and director of the Doctoral Program in Sociology at the University of Rome, as well as editor of La Critica Sociologica

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Old and New Modernities
The Modern World and Its Destiny	p. 3
Counter-Cultures and Postmodernism	p. 27
Beyond the Authoritarian Personality	p. 51
Civil Society and State Structures in Creative Tension	p. 73
The City and Civil Society	p. 93
New Approaches to Social Movements in Western Europe	p. 107
The Culture of Violence	p. 121
Social Marginality and Violence in Neo-Urban Societies	p. 133
Social Theories and Methodologies
Modern Rationality and the Paradox of the Sacred	p. 161
History and Sociology	p. 183
The Lessons of Positivism	p. 197
American and European Social Science	p. 217
Biography and the Social Sciences	p. 233
Thorstein Veblen and his Critics	p. 249
The Social Type of the Businessman	p. 253
Sacred and Secular Modalities
Constantinian Christianity and the Future of the Catholic Church	p. 263
The Media Pope	p. 291
Reflections on America	p. 295
Time and Its Social Transformations	p. 305
On Photography	p. 317
About the Editor	p. 337
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