Sociological Objects: Reconfigurations of Social Theory

by Rettie; Ruth

• ISBN13: 9780754672685
• ISBN10: 0754672689
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781317053101
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-02-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

What are the aims of sociology? What are its objects of study? How relevant is the classical tradition to the practice of sociology today? This volume brings together internationally renowned and new scholars to consider the changing relationship between contemporary and classical sociology. Arguing that recent historical and theoretical developments make reconsideration timely, it suggests that whilst the classical tradition has a continuing pertinence, it is inevitably subject to ongoing reconfiguration; contributors focus on a number of different aspects of this process.The book is organised into three thematic sections that explore, in turn, the relevance of classical and contemporary sociology for:- the conceptualisation of sociological objects;- the conceptualisation of social practice;- the conceptualisation of social theory.Assessing the explanatory value of classical and contemporary forms of sociology, interrogating social theory as both a form of explanation and a mode of practice, and considering the possible consequences for the discipline of questions about its subject matter, Sociological Objects steers a course between assertions about radical epistemological breaks on the one hand, and reverence for the classical tradition on the other. Rather, it emphasises the value of reworking, reconsidering and reconfiguring sociological thought.

Table of Contents

Preface; The objects of sociology: an introduction

Social Things: Introduction

Durkheim's globality

Back to the things themselves: on Simmelian objects

Durkheim's social facts and the performative model: reconsidering the objective nature of social phenomena

Social Practices: Introduction

Communities of practice vs traditional communities: the state of sociology in a context of globalization

Working out what Garfinkel could possibly be doing with `Durkheim's aphorism'

Mathematical equations as Durkheimian social facts?

Social Theories: Introduction

Social theory in situated practice: theoretical categories in everyday discourse

Appropriation, translation and the opening of theory

'Identity' after `the moment of theory'

Reconfigurations of social theory: concluding thoughts

Index

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