Suchergebnisse

Suggests that contemporary forms of liberal political reason & practices of governance have found ways in which society can be bypassed, thus threatening the usefulness of sociology in the present moment. It is shown that concern for the social arose in tandem with modern economies of liberal & institutional regimes in the form of notions of social health, promotion, defense, security, & insurance. By the mid-20th century, the social was firmly established as a domain of knowledge around two poles: society & the individual. The demise of the social is traced to a series of critiques of the welfare state beginning in the 1960s: (1) social movement critiques; (2) critiques of professions & expertise; & (3) a celebration of the self & techniques of self-renewal initiated by countercultural movements. These critiques have led to reformulations of basic concepts -- eg, freedom, the market, interests, & choice -- which, collectively, have dissolved liberal democracies into multiple forms, & the development of new, multiple strategies & techniques for managing the self & populations. It is suggested that sociology has several tasks in this environment, including political intervention, naming operative forms of power, & diagnosing the current situation. 56 References. D. M. Smith

"A concise, informal account of the ways in which information and society are related, and of our ever-increasing dependence on a complex multiplicity of messages, records, documents, and data

Argues that current shifts taking place within the field of sociology are based on first-of-their-kind changes that are occurring in the everyday experience of being-in-the-world. Distinctions between "solid" & "liquid" modernity are pointed out as an explanation for the transformation that is producing a fragile & unstable society. The collapse of social engineering is said to be the substance of the current transformation. Special attention is given to the decline of the "grand models" of a comprehensively administered "societal order," new techniques of domination, & the nature of the "new & improved power relations." It is pointed out that all limits & stable traits of the world are being destroyed, along with the very idea of society as an organic reality. Nonetheless, a world made up of networks, information, & circuits of knowledge provides new possibilities for the human experience. Emphasis is placed on the need for sociology to function within the public sphere in order to contribute to the establishment of a new kind of "agora," the birthplace of effective collective action. J. Lindroth