Exploring Sociological Theory

The last chapter of Fromm's analysis of individuality of modern man. Fromm addresses the repressive nature of modern culture and socialization, pointing to helplessless, a lack of automony and freedom, to be fertile ground for authoritarianism, fascism.

This is epic. Love his trichotomy, and the discussion he concludes with. I.e. the emergence of the seemingly infinite from the infinitesimal, across all the natural and social sciences. Sounds like a call to the study of the heterogeneous and differentiated, outside the coordinated reduction of similarities (science).

at times thought-provoking, contradictory, and offensive

wish I could've read the rest of the article, but was getting tired of it o.o 

His sentences are long, his words true. Seems I need to read more Roy Bhaskar.

Printed in 1842, Comte's universal law of mental development, and why it provides such a strong impetus for his new idea, "sociology" (translated as social physics in this reading).

From New Rules of Sociological Method, this section addresses the connection between art and the social sciences, in that they both attempt cross-cultural communication for self-expansion.

Can you predict this will lead to sociology in particular? I didn't...

Super dense, packed with insight, and justifies sociology of sociology (my focus).

Great analysis, moving from the mnemonic structures which keep ancestry in the Nuer and the dynamics of remembering and forgetting in scientific discovery.

An interesting little essay, directly adjacent in The Sociology of Georg Simmel to his famous essay The Stranger.

Garfinkel has a wordy, rather technical-sounding description of the study of the taken-for-granted, the made-practical, the reasonable, etc. It's those unseen practices for making actions, events, etc. normal-ish, that he wants to study. And because it is so normal, and so intentionally ignored, by the 60s it still had not been a subject of rigorous sociological work.

It's a classic, but also a headache. Good luck!

The introductory chapter to the book, published in 1999. It's great, a reassuring & pleasant vision for science studies! The cases sound interesting as well.

The last chapter of an epic & forgotten book in sociology.

It's a bit wordy, but also a bit epic & deep.

Curious if anyone (including me) will ever make it to the end.

Enjoy!

Sociability refers to  different forms of social interaction and human association. The  concept, in both descriptive and normative senses, can be found in many  branches of study. In sociology the concept occupied a central place in  the work of Georg Simmel, who developed and presented it as a sociological ideal type.

This was published in AJS in 1949 "The Sociology of Sociability," original from 1910

Published in 1939, when this guy was just 38 years old, the book as a whole gives a sweeping defense of science in light of popular critiques at the time. But the last chapter I read here gives a beautiful and comprehensive vision of science as a scaffolding for all future human action, and a program for its merging with culture, history, etc. and its morphing and supporting humanity's quest towards the future. Great read.

Erving Goffman’s posthumously published essay, ‘The interaction order’,  which was to have been presented as a presidential address at an annual  meeting of the American Sociological Association, is usually taken to be  an attempt at a systematic summary by Goffman of his key ideas. (This) address can also be understood as a profoundly  personal and deeply scornful critique by Goffman of the varieties of  mainstream sociology and the pretensions of its practitioners.  Incorporated into that critique is a simulacrum in which Goffman  demonstrated what a systematic treatment of his work might look like had  he actually been inclined to generate one. In that respect, ‘The  interaction order’ transcends the boundaries of what we ordinarily  expect to find in an academic address: it is simultaneously an artful  display of Goffman’s real vocational commitment to sociology, a  contribution to the rhetorical debate in which he engaged with the  practitioners of orthodox versions of sociology and a brief but  significant demonstration of some aspects he considered distinctive  about his own form of sociology.

- Michael Rosenberg (2019)

One publisher's description

The excerpt that follows is from Mills' acclaimed book, The Sociological Imagination. Since its original publication in 1959, this text has been a required reading for most introductory sociology students around the world. Mills' sociological imagination perspective not only cornpels Lhe besl sociological analyses but also enables the sociologist and the individual to distinguish between "personal troubles" and "public issues." By separating these phenomena, we can better comprehend the sources of and solutions to social problems.

The first of his famous lectures

from Frame Analysis

(Goffman) Intro to frame analysis -- Chapter 1.

Tumin challenged the Davis–Moore hypothesis of social stratification  with his paper "Some principles of stratification: a critical  analysis".[5][6] Tumin took Davis–Moore to imply that social  stratification was mostly inevitable and provided a positive function  for society. He analyzed the arguments of Davis and Moore and found them  wanting in a number of respects.[6] In a reply to Tumin's paper, Davis  stated that his ideas seek to explain inequality, rather than justify  it. Davis also accused Tumin of a number of errors.[7]  Tumin's 1967 book Social Stratification: The Forms and Functions of  Inequality was widely used as a textbook and was re-issued in 1985.[1]

The Davis–Moore hypothesis, sometimes referred to as the Davis–Moore  theory, is a central claim within the structural functionalist paradigm  of sociological theory, and was advanced by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert  E. Moore in a paper published in 1945.[1] The hypothesis is an attempt  to explain social stratification. As a structural functionalist theory,  it is also associated with Talcott Parsons and Robert K. Merton. [from  Wiki, Davis-Moore hypothesis]

The Communist Manifesto, originally the Manifesto of the Communist Party (German: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is an 1848 political document by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London just as the Revolutions of 1848 began to erupt, the Manifesto was later recognised as one of the world's most influential political documents. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and then-present) and the conflicts of capitalism and the capitalist mode of production, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms. 

Ch. 3 of Critical Social Theory

From Durkheim's seminal work Suicide, which explores suicide rates in the context of Durkheim's theory of social cohesion is an integral feature of the structure of human society, and as an individual necessity which protects us from self-harm.

from Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes.

1978

Reality Construction in Society -- Holzner, Ch 10

Reality Construction and Society Ch 4

Bauman delivers on a more useful definition of Utopia.

A focus on the creative abilities of humans to choose from among multiple threads from now into the future. That we are not determined by our circumstance, at least not if we (humans) are thinking critically about it!

A classic. Short and sweet. I aspire to be the benevolent stranger, but in Simmel's sense. You would call us friends :)

Scheff _ Microsociology _ Ch 1

Emotions as central to understanding social interaction, on a micro level. And implicitly an argument that this micro-interaction is crucial in understanding the macro.

There's a lot of repeats in this chapter. Wasn't the most well-put-together reading, but there are some really beautiful ideas here. I hope you enjoy.

Mannheim _ Sociology as Political Ideology _ Lec 10

Mannheim _ Sociology as Political Education _ Lec 9

Mannheim _ Ideology as Political Education _ Lec 1

from the Reconstruction of Humanity

from the Reconstruction of Humanity