This book presents the first comprehensive and critical account of Jeffrey Alexander’s cultural sociology. Alexander has proposed a “strong program” in cultural sociology that analyses the cultural pragmatics of social performance, and his hermeneutical approach connects meaningful political action with deeper symbolic structures of social life. His highly original account of the civil sphere, as an institutionalized domain that is shaped by the discourse of liberty and solidarity and that sustains universalizing cultural aspirations provides an illuminating perspective on how democracy functions, and fails to function, in contemporary societies.
This book charts the development of Alexander’s thought in all its complexity. Through its critical readings, it also opens up a dialogue with other contemporary approaches in sociology, situating Alexander’s work in relation to others and highlighting alternative views that challenge his ideas. It is an invaluable introduction for anyone who wishes to learn more about the work of one of the most creative sociologists of our time.
Table of Contents
PrefaceIntroduction
Chapter 1: The “strong program” of cultural sociology
Alexander’s “post-positivist” approach to sociology
From Parsons to neofunctionalism
From Neofunctionalism to Cultural Sociology
A new analysis of the relative autonomy of culture based on reflexivity
Chapter 2: A rereading of Durkheim: social ritual and cultural significance
The presence of the religious in cultural life
A sociology of religion in social life: politics and technology
Symbolic forms of meaning in contemporary society
Chapter 3: A critique of Marx, Cultural Studies, and Bourdieu
The rejection of Marxian critique
Critique of Cultural Studies
Critique of Bourdieusian determinism
Critical theory and reflexivity: the power of representation
Chapter 4: Culture, Politics and Civil Religion: Weber and beyond
With Weber and beyond: a sociology of religion in modernity
Weberian analysis reassessed by pragmatics and hermeneutics
The civil sphere and political debates: reconstruction of civil religion
Chapter 5: The Civil Sphere and the “Societal Community:” beyond Parsons
From Parsons to Touraine and beyond: analysis of performative social movements
Cultural pragmatics and the challenges of symbolic codification
Social and cultural trauma theory: social claims of identity
Chapter 6: The power of representation and the representation of power
Empirical analysis of political life: the representation of power
Power of representation: performance and dramatic action in the civil sphere
The power of the symbolic and the iconic
A generalized social theatricality: the dramatic aesthetics of social action
Conclusion
