The Time of the Tribes

by Maffesoli, Michel; Smith, Don

• ISBN13: 9780803984738
• ISBN10: 0803984731
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-12-01
• Publisher: Sage Pubns Ltd

Summary

In this exciting book Michel Maffesoli argues that the conventional approaches to understanding solidarity and society are deeply flawed. He contends that mass culture has disintegrated and that today social existence is conducted through fragmented tribal groupings, organized around the catchwords, brand-names and sound-bites of consumer culture. The book provides a rich backcloth against which to consider the rise of 'identity politics' and the 'proliferation of lifestyle cultures'.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Masses or Tribes?	ix
Rob Shields
By Way of Introduction	1	(151)
A few words of warning	1	(3)
The quomodo	4	(2)
Overture	6	(3)
The Emotional Community: Research Arguments	9	(22)
The aesthetic aura	9	(6)
The ethical experience	15	(5)
Custom	20	(11)
The Underground Puissance	31	(25)
Aspects of vitalism	31	(7)
The social divine	38	(7)
The aloofness of the people	45	(11)
Sociality vs. the Social	56	(16)
Beyond politics	56	(8)
A natural `familiarism'	64	(8)
Tribalism	72	(32)
The affectual nebula	72	(7)
The `undirected' being-together	79	(3)
The `religious' model	82	(4)
Elective sociality	86	(4)
The law of secrecy	90	(6)
Masses and lifestyles	96	(8)
Polyculturalism	104	(19)
Of triplicity	104	(2)
Presence and estrangement	106	(4)
The polytheism of the people, or the diversity of God	110	(4)
The organic balance	114	(9)
Of Proxemics	123	(29)
The community of destiny	123	(6)
Genius loci	129	(10)
Tribes and networks	139	(6)
The network of networks	145	(7)
Appendix: The Thinking of the Public Square	152	(14)
1. The two cultures	152	(2)
2. For the people's happiness	154	(3)
3. The order within	157	(3)
4. Experience, proxemics and organic knowledge	160	(6)
Index	166