Description
Book SynopsisJeffrey Alexander, known for his work in sociological theory, breaks new ground in Action and Its Environments. His emphasis here is directly empirical and normative. He builds models, develops classifications, makes definitions, and offers explanations. He also develops an historical and comparative perspective on modernity that allows political and moral issues to be considered in a fresh way. The book aims to bring action theory and structure theory back together by focussing on three central questions. First, how can the normative and material properties of social structures be interlinked? Second, can the conventional, creative and strategic dimensions of individual action be related to social structures? Third, what are conditions and limits of modern social and cultural differentiation? In answering these questions Alexander portrays the complex relationship between social movements, public opinion formation, social solidarity, and social change. A new model of the structure an
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments IntroductionPart I: The Problem Stated One: Social-Structural Analysis: Presuppositions, Ideologies, Empirical DebatesPart II: Structure, Action, and Differentiation Two: Durkheim's Problem and Differentiation Theory Today Three: Core Solidarity, Ethnic Outgroup, and Social Differentiation Four: The Mass News Media in Systemic, Historical, and Comparative Perspective Five: Three Models of Culture and Social Relations: Toward an Analysis of Watergate Six: The University and MoralityPart III: The Micro-Macro Link Seven: Social Differentiation and Collective Behavior (with Paul Colomy) Eight: The Individualist Dilemma in Phenomenology and Interactionism Nine: From Reduction to Linkage: The Long View of the Micro-Macro Debate (with Bernhard Giesen)Part IV: The Problem Restated Ten: Action and Its EnvironmentsIndex
