Jeffrey C. Alexander | |
---|---|
Born | Jeffrey Charles Alexander May 30, 1947 |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Thesis | Theoretical Logic in Sociology (1978) |
Doctoral advisor | Robert N. Bellah [1] |
Other advisors | Leo Lowenthal, Neil Smelser |
Influences | |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Sociology |
Sub-discipline | Cultural sociology |
School or tradition | Neofunctionalism |
Institutions |
Jeffrey Charles Alexander (born 1947) is an American sociologist,and a prominent social theorist. He is the founding figure in the school of cultural sociology he refers to as the "strong program".
He was born May 30,1947,in Milwaukee,Wisconsin. [4] Alexander gained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1969 and his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of California,Berkeley,in 1978. [4] [5] [6] He was originally interested in Marxist sociology and followed the work of Fred Block and debates in the journal Socialist Revolution,but evolved to a democratic socialist,then left liberal position. [6]
Later he worked with Neil Smelser,Robert N. Bellah,and Leo Lowenthal. Each of whom were on his dissertation committee,with the chair being Bellah,a former student of Talcott Parsons. Alexander's dissertation,Theoretical Logic in Sociology,was published as a four-volume set. Volume 1 was subtitled Positivism,Presuppositions,and Current Controversies,Volume 2 was The Antimonies of Classical Thought:Marx and Durkheim,Volume 3 was The Classical Attempt at Theoretical Synthesis:Max Weber,and Volume 4 was subtitled The Modern Reconstruction of Classical Thought:Talcott Parsons. At the time,many theorists were attempting to revive Parsons after a decade of criticisms,and Alexander's Theoretical Logic in Sociology was part of this revival.
He worked at the University of California,Los Angeles,from 1974 until joining Yale University in 2001,where (as of 2008) he is the Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology and co-director of the Center for Cultural Sociology. [7]
Alexander has authored or co-authored ten books. [5] He was one of the editors of the journal Sociological Theory , [8] and he is currently co-editor of the American Journal of Cultural Sociology . [9]
He received honorary doctorates from La Trobe University,Melbourne and the University College Dublin,Ireland. In 2004,he won the Clifford Geertz Award for Best Article in Cultural Sociology and in 2008,he won the Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book in Cultural Sociology. He also received the 2007 Theory Prize from the Theory Section of the American Sociological Association for best theoretical article. In 2009,he received The Foundation Mattei Dogan Prize in Sociology by the International Sociological Association,awarded every four years in recognition of lifetime accomplishments to "a scholar of very high standing in the profession and of outstanding international reputation." [10]
Notable students of Jeffrey Alexander include Ronald Jacobs, [11] Philip Smith, [12] Isaac Reed, [13] Matthew Norton, [14] and Elizabeth Breese. [15]
In sociology,neofunctionalism represents a revival of the thought of Talcott Parsons by Jeffrey C. Alexander,who sees neofunctionalism as having five central tendencies:
While Parsons consistently viewed actors as analytical concepts,Alexander defines action as the movement of concrete,living,breathing persons as they make their way through time and space. In addition he argues that every action contains a dimension of free will,by which he is expanding functionalism to include some of the concerns of symbolic interactionism. [16]
Starting in the late 1980s,Alexander's work turned toward cultural sociology. Key to this cultural turn was a shift in emphasis from an engagement with Parsonian structural functionalism toward a rereading of Emile Durkheim's later works,which featured a strong interest in cultural systems. Durkheim's Elementary Forms of Religious Life was key to Alexander's thought,as in this work Durkheim analyzes the ways by which collective representations emerge and function,as well as the role of rituals in maintaining solidarity and reiterating society's norms and values to the congregation. Alexander picks up specifically on Durkheim's suggestion that the religious processes observed in tribal societies are as pertinent in modern societies. Regardless of whether modern societies believe themselves to be rational and secular,their civil life and processes,claims Alexander,are underpinned by collective representations,by strong emotional ties and by various narratives that—much like tribal societies—tell society what it believes it is and what values it holds sacred. [17]
Alexander distinguishes between the sociology of culture and cultural sociology. The sociology of culture sees culture as a dependent variable—that is,a product of extra-cultural factors such as the economy or interest-laden politics—whereas cultural sociology sees culture as having more autonomy and gives more weight to inner meanings. In other words,in Alexander's conception of cultural sociology assumes that ideas and symbolic processes may have an independent effect on social institutions,on politics,and on culture itself. [18] [ page needed ] Alexander strongly distinguishes this sociological perspective from the then-dominant Bourdieusian sociological framework,which tends to see cultural processes as embedded in power struggles,and ultimately in material inequality. [19]
Two of his earlier articles can be seen as precursors to his more direct engagement with the topic of trauma. In one,he demonstrates that the Holocaust was not immediately perceived as universally signifying universal evil for Western societies. Rather than that,it was constructed as such by way of a long process of narration and signification. [20] [ page needed ] In the second,he shows that the Watergate Crisis was originally not perceived by American society as much more than a minor incident. Here,too,the incident had to be culturally narrated and constructed as compromising the core values of American society,turning what was first thought to be a mundane faux-pas into a full-fledged scandal. [21] [ page range too broad ] A key claim of both studies is that even events that are currently thought of as deeply traumatic for civil society are not inherently devastating but are rather constructed as such through cultural processes.
More generally,Alexander differentiates "cultural trauma" from what he calls "lay trauma" in social thought. "Lay trauma" refers to the idea that certain events are inherently traumatic to the individuals who experience them—for example,the idea of trauma in psychology. However,"cultural trauma" approach cannot assume that any event—as horrendous as it may be—will turn into a trauma for the collective who encounters it. As Alexander explains,"[C]ultural trauma occurs when members of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to a horrendous event that leaves indelible marks upon their group consciousness,marking their memories forever and changing their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways". [22]
In the mid-2000s Alexander turned attention toward the ways actors create social or cultural performances,which are "the social process[es] by which actors,individually or in concert,display for others the meaning of their social situation". [23] Actors,claims Alexander,care deeply about having others believe the meanings they attempt to convey,and to this end they seek to create a performance as authentic-looking as possible. To do so,they engage in what Alexander calls "cultural pragmatics" and draw upon the various elements of social performance:the systems of collective representation,means of symbolic production,mise-en-scène arrangements (much like a theater production would).
Alexander claims that in tribal societies the various elements of cultural performance were tightly fused,and were employed in collective rituals in which the entire tribe partook and its members experienced first-hand. In modern societies,these various elements became de-fused (as per Weber's sphere differentiation) and for this reason actors who wish to appear authentic must draw upon various repertoires. "Fusion",in Alexander's terms,is the moment in a performance when the various elements click together,generate an effective performance,and ultimately move the audience to psychological identification with the actors. A failed performance will be one that the audience will perceive as inauthentic,and will not develop the sense of identification the actors desired. [24]
In recent years,Alexander has turned attention towards the material aspects of culture,extending his specific strand of cultural sociology towards aesthetics and particularly icons. As he defines it,iconic consciousness occurs "when an aesthetically shaped materiality signifies social value. Contact with this aesthetic surface,whether by sight,smell,taste,touch provides a sensual experience that transmits meaning ...". [25] In contradistinction with various sociologies of culture that have tended to see the visual or the material as a form of falsity or degradation,Alexander draws on the Durkheimian notion of the symbolic collective representation to argue that the ways in which culture operates—both in instilling and in recreating values—is intrinsically tied to symbolic material forms.
Studies following Alexander's approach have looked,for example,into the ways in which architecture is embedded in a deep meaning structure and have deep emotional resonance with the society that frequents them. [26] Others have extended the idea of iconic consciousness into the realm of celebrities,and have explored the ways in which celebrities on one hand present an appealing aesthetic "surface" and on the other hand condense and convey a locus of "deep" meanings that resonate with the audience. [27]
Following the Egyptian Revolution,Alexander conducted a study of the revolutionary months from a cultural sociological point of view,applying some of his previous theories in order to understand the ways in which the various protests voiced by demonstrators,journalists,bloggers,and public actors ultimately persuaded the Egyptian army to turn against the regime. The key to understanding the revolution,claims Alexander,is in the binary structure these various actors applied to the Moubarak regime,persuasively depicting it as corrupt and outdated and thereby convincing the wider public that it was a menace to Egyptian society. [28] [ page needed ]
David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science,along with both Karl Marx and Max Weber.
Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist of the classical tradition,best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in sociology in the 20th century. After earning a PhD in economics,he served on the faculty at Harvard University from 1927 to 1929. In 1930,he was among the first professors in its new sociology department. Later,he was instrumental in the establishment of the Department of Social Relations at Harvard.
Robert King Merton was an American sociologist who is considered a founding father of modern sociology,and a major contributor to the subfield of criminology. He served as the 47th President of the American Sociological Association. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University,where he attained the rank of University Professor. In 1994 he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his contributions to the field and for having founded the sociology of science.
Social theories are analytical frameworks,or paradigms,that are used to study and interpret social phenomena. A tool used by social scientists,social theories relate to historical debates over the validity and reliability of different methodologies,the primacy of either structure or agency,as well as the relationship between contingency and necessity. Social theory in an informal nature,or authorship based outside of academic social and political science,may be referred to as "social criticism" or "social commentary",or "cultural criticism" and may be associated both with formal cultural and literary scholarship,as well as other non-academic or journalistic forms of writing.
Structural functionalism,or simply functionalism,is "a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability".
In the social sciences,social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals. Likewise,society is believed to be grouped into structurally related groups or sets of roles,with different functions,meanings,or purposes. Examples of social structure include family,religion,law,economy,and class. It contrasts with "social system",which refers to the parent structure in which these various structures are embedded. Thus,social structures significantly influence larger systems,such as economic systems,legal systems,political systems,cultural systems,etc. Social structure can also be said to be the framework upon which a society is established. It determines the norms and patterns of relations between the various institutions of the society.
A cultural system is the interaction of different elements in culture. While a cultural system is very different from a social system,sometimes both systems together are referred to as the sociocultural system.
Neofunctionalism is the perspective that all integration is the result of past integration. The term may also be used to literally describe a social theory that is "post" traditional structural functionalism. Whereas theorists such as Jeffrey C. Alexander openly appropriated the term,others,such as the post-structuralist philosopher Michel Foucault,have been categorized as contemporary functionalists by their critics.
Sociology as a scholarly discipline emerged,primarily out of Enlightenment thought,as a positivist science of society shortly after the French Revolution. Its genesis owed to various key movements in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of knowledge,arising in reaction to such issues as modernity,capitalism,urbanization,rationalization,secularization,colonization and imperialism.
Humanistic sociology is a domain of sociology which originated mainly from the work of the University of Chicago Polish philosopher-turned-sociologist,Florian Znaniecki. It is a methodology which treats its objects of study and its students,that is,humans,as composites of values and systems of values. In certain contexts,the term is related to other sociological domains such as antipositivism. Humanistic sociology seeks to shed light on questions such as,"What is the relationship between a man of principle and a man of opportunism?"
The AGIL paradigm is a sociological scheme created by American sociologist Talcott Parsons in the 1950s. It is a systematic depiction of certain societal functions,which every society must meet to be able to maintain stable social life. The AGIL paradigm is part of Parsons's larger action theory,outlined in his notable book The Structure of Social Action,in The Social System and in later works,which aims to construct a unified map of all action systems,and ultimately "living systems". Indeed,the actual AGIL system only appeared in its first elaborate form in 1956,and Parsons extended the system in various layers of complexity during the rest of his intellectual life. Towards the end of his life,he added a new dimension to the action system,which he called the paradigm of the human condition;within that paradigm,the action system occupied the integral dimension.
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The sociology of culture,and the related cultural sociology,concerns the systematic analysis of culture,usually understood as the ensemble of symbolic codes used by a member of a society,as it is manifested in the society. For Georg Simmel,culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history". Culture in the sociological field is analyzed as the ways of thinking and describing,acting,and the material objects that together shape a group of people's way of life.
A sociological theory is a supposition that intends to consider,analyze,and/or explain objects of social reality from a sociological perspective,drawing connections between individual concepts in order to organize and substantiate sociological knowledge. Hence,such knowledge is composed of complex theoretical frameworks and methodology.
Sociology of terrorism is a field of sociology that seeks to understand terrorism as a social phenomenon. The field defines terrorism,studies why it occurs and evaluates its impacts on society. The sociology of terrorism draws from the fields of political science,history,economics and psychology. The sociology of terrorism differs from critical terrorism studies,emphasizing the social conditions that enable terrorism. It also studies how individuals as well as states respond to such events.
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society,human social behavior,patterns of social relationships,social interaction,and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and social change. While some sociologists conduct research that may be applied directly to social policy and welfare,others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes and phenomenological method. Subject matter can range from micro-level analyses of society to macro-level analyses.
In sociology,action theory is the theory of social action presented by the American theorist Talcott Parsons.
Consensus theory is a social theory that holds a particular political or economic system as a fair system,and that social change should take place within the social institutions provided by it. Consensus theory contrasts sharply with conflict theory,which holds that social change is only achieved through conflict.
This bibliography of Sociology is a list of works,organized by subdiscipline,on the subject of sociology. Some of the works are selected from general anthologies of sociology,while other works are selected because they are notable enough to be mentioned in a general history of sociology or one of its subdisciplines.
Richard Münch is a German sociologist and,as of 2013,professor emeritus at the University of Bamberg. His primary field is sociological theory,in particular the work of Talcott Parsons. In the 1980s,he was instrumental in popularizing Parsons in Germany and defended his functionalist "grand theory" of action against competing approaches,such as rational choice and Niklas Luhmann's systems theory,which had been gaining ground since the 1970s.
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