Frédéric Mérand
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199533244
- eISBN:
- 9780191714474
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199533244.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, European Union
This book explains the creation of the European Union's Security and Defense Policy—to this day the most ambitious project of peacetime military integration. Whether hailed as a vital step in the ...
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This book explains the creation of the European Union's Security and Defense Policy—to this day the most ambitious project of peacetime military integration. Whether hailed as a vital step in the integration of Europe or berated as a wasteful threat to US power, European citizens are increasingly interested in the common defense policy. Today, “European Defense” is more popular than the European Union itself, even in Great Britain. This book addresses the fundamental challenge posed by military integration to the way we think about the state in the 21st century. Looking back over the past fifty years, it shows how statesmen, diplomats, and soldiers have converged towards Brussels as a “natural” solution to their concerns but also as something worth fighting over. The actors most closely associated to the formation of nation-states are now shaping a transgovernmental security and defense arena. As a result, defense policy is being denationalized. Exploring the complex relations between the state, the military, and citizenship in today's Europe, the book argues that European Defense is a symptom, but not a cause, of the transformation of the state. This book is an original contribution to the theory of European integration. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, the book develops a political sociology of international relations which seeks to bridge institutionalism and constructivism. This careful study of practices, social representations, and power structures sheds new light on security and defense cooperation, but also on European cooperation more generally.Less
This book explains the creation of the European Union's Security and Defense Policy—to this day the most ambitious project of peacetime military integration. Whether hailed as a vital step in the integration of Europe or berated as a wasteful threat to US power, European citizens are increasingly interested in the common defense policy. Today, “European Defense” is more popular than the European Union itself, even in Great Britain. This book addresses the fundamental challenge posed by military integration to the way we think about the state in the 21st century. Looking back over the past fifty years, it shows how statesmen, diplomats, and soldiers have converged towards Brussels as a “natural” solution to their concerns but also as something worth fighting over. The actors most closely associated to the formation of nation-states are now shaping a transgovernmental security and defense arena. As a result, defense policy is being denationalized. Exploring the complex relations between the state, the military, and citizenship in today's Europe, the book argues that European Defense is a symptom, but not a cause, of the transformation of the state. This book is an original contribution to the theory of European integration. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, the book develops a political sociology of international relations which seeks to bridge institutionalism and constructivism. This careful study of practices, social representations, and power structures sheds new light on security and defense cooperation, but also on European cooperation more generally.
Edward G. Carmines and Robert Huckfeldt
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198294719
- eISBN:
- 9780191599361
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198294719.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Reference
Provides an overview of the ways political scientists have explained political behaviour. Traces the development of approaches from the early electoral studies to economic models, to combinations of ...
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Provides an overview of the ways political scientists have explained political behaviour. Traces the development of approaches from the early electoral studies to economic models, to combinations of context and political agency in a political sociological response, and finally to a return to the individual voter in the form of political psychology. The politics of race is discussed as an example of the interaction of individual and social effects, representing the direction in which the broader political behaviour sub‐discipline is heading.Less
Provides an overview of the ways political scientists have explained political behaviour. Traces the development of approaches from the early electoral studies to economic models, to combinations of context and political agency in a political sociological response, and finally to a return to the individual voter in the form of political psychology. The politics of race is discussed as an example of the interaction of individual and social effects, representing the direction in which the broader political behaviour sub‐discipline is heading.
Frédéric Mérand
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199533244
- eISBN:
- 9780191714474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199533244.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, European Union
The conclusion develops the implications of the book's argument for the study of European integration and International Relations more generally. The conclusion is framed around two challenges posed ...
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The conclusion develops the implications of the book's argument for the study of European integration and International Relations more generally. The conclusion is framed around two challenges posed by ESDP. The first challenge concerns the inability of traditional EU approaches, such as neofunctionalism or intergovernmentalism, to theorize the development of European defense. The second challenge concerns the nature of the state and its definition in International Relations theory. IR theory has often been accused of being too statocentric, thus neglecting the social determinants of state behavior. For each of these challenges, it is shown how political sociology's critical eye on the role of the state, here grounded in a careful empirical study, can open up new research paths. The chapter concludes with predictions about the future of European defense.Less
The conclusion develops the implications of the book's argument for the study of European integration and International Relations more generally. The conclusion is framed around two challenges posed by ESDP. The first challenge concerns the inability of traditional EU approaches, such as neofunctionalism or intergovernmentalism, to theorize the development of European defense. The second challenge concerns the nature of the state and its definition in International Relations theory. IR theory has often been accused of being too statocentric, thus neglecting the social determinants of state behavior. For each of these challenges, it is shown how political sociology's critical eye on the role of the state, here grounded in a careful empirical study, can open up new research paths. The chapter concludes with predictions about the future of European defense.
Gianfranco Poggi
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198780878
- eISBN:
- 9780191695391
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198780878.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This book presents an account of Emile Durkheim's work, focusing on a reassessment of his central ideas and arguments. Durkheim can undoubtedly be considered one of the most significant social ...
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This book presents an account of Emile Durkheim's work, focusing on a reassessment of his central ideas and arguments. Durkheim can undoubtedly be considered one of the most significant social thinkers of the last hundred years and his writings continue to attract both applause and controversy throughout the world, not just from sociologists and scholars from related disciplines but also from all those interested in the way modern society operates. This introduction to Durkheim's thought examines closely all of Durkheim's ‘canonical’ works and assesses their significance today. The book also considers closely the question what did Durkheim mean by ‘society’? It also assesses Durkheim's contribution to both political sociology and the sociology of law, placing his writings in the context of the generation of European scholars to which he belonged.Less
This book presents an account of Emile Durkheim's work, focusing on a reassessment of his central ideas and arguments. Durkheim can undoubtedly be considered one of the most significant social thinkers of the last hundred years and his writings continue to attract both applause and controversy throughout the world, not just from sociologists and scholars from related disciplines but also from all those interested in the way modern society operates. This introduction to Durkheim's thought examines closely all of Durkheim's ‘canonical’ works and assesses their significance today. The book also considers closely the question what did Durkheim mean by ‘society’? It also assesses Durkheim's contribution to both political sociology and the sociology of law, placing his writings in the context of the generation of European scholars to which he belonged.
Rudy B. Andeweg
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199250158
- eISBN:
- 9780191599439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199250154.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
This chapter gives an overview of approaches to the study of governments, building explicitly on the work of A. King (1975) and C. Campbell (1993), who, respectively, offered three research themes ...
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This chapter gives an overview of approaches to the study of governments, building explicitly on the work of A. King (1975) and C. Campbell (1993), who, respectively, offered three research themes (composition, internal dynamics and external relations) and three theoretical perspectives (institutionalism, rational choice and political sociology/psychology). Each of the three research themes is discussed separately, using examples that illustrate the theoretical perspectives: under ‘composition’, the examples are coalition formation (rational choice) and recruitment/motivation (political sociology/psychology); under ‘internal dynamics’, the examples are prime–ministerial v. cabinet government (institutionalism) and political roles/groupthink (political sociology/psychology); and under ‘external relations’, the examples are executive–legislative relations (institutionalism) and control over bureaucracy (rational choice). The last section of the chapter compares the three theoretical approaches.Less
This chapter gives an overview of approaches to the study of governments, building explicitly on the work of A. King (1975) and C. Campbell (1993), who, respectively, offered three research themes (composition, internal dynamics and external relations) and three theoretical perspectives (institutionalism, rational choice and political sociology/psychology). Each of the three research themes is discussed separately, using examples that illustrate the theoretical perspectives: under ‘composition’, the examples are coalition formation (rational choice) and recruitment/motivation (political sociology/psychology); under ‘internal dynamics’, the examples are prime–ministerial v. cabinet government (institutionalism) and political roles/groupthink (political sociology/psychology); and under ‘external relations’, the examples are executive–legislative relations (institutionalism) and control over bureaucracy (rational choice). The last section of the chapter compares the three theoretical approaches.
Frédéric Mérand
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199533244
- eISBN:
- 9780191714474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199533244.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, European Union
The introduction explains the challenge posed by the European security and defense policy to the nature of the European state. Building on a critical dialogue between political sociologists and EU ...
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The introduction explains the challenge posed by the European security and defense policy to the nature of the European state. Building on a critical dialogue between political sociologists and EU scholars, it places military integration in the broader perspective of state formation since the 16th century. The puzzle is to understand why a large number of political leaders, defense planners, and diplomats are willing, without an external threat, to surrender key elements of state sovereignty. The argument is that the interpenetration of European states has created strong incentives for state actors to coordinate their foreign and defense policies at the EU level. More specifically, the development of ESDP is analyzed as the creation of transgovernmental field through fifty years of intense military and foreign policy cooperation among Europeans in the EU and also in NATO. Other theoretical perspectives on European defense (realism, liberalism, constructivism, and foreign policy analysis) are then presented and critiqued.Less
The introduction explains the challenge posed by the European security and defense policy to the nature of the European state. Building on a critical dialogue between political sociologists and EU scholars, it places military integration in the broader perspective of state formation since the 16th century. The puzzle is to understand why a large number of political leaders, defense planners, and diplomats are willing, without an external threat, to surrender key elements of state sovereignty. The argument is that the interpenetration of European states has created strong incentives for state actors to coordinate their foreign and defense policies at the EU level. More specifically, the development of ESDP is analyzed as the creation of transgovernmental field through fifty years of intense military and foreign policy cooperation among Europeans in the EU and also in NATO. Other theoretical perspectives on European defense (realism, liberalism, constructivism, and foreign policy analysis) are then presented and critiqued.
William J. Novak
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226277646
- eISBN:
- 9780226277813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226277813.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Political History
This chapter draws attention to the vital role of interdisciplinary perspectives in law, history, sociology, and political science in redirecting our understanding of the origins, development, and ...
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This chapter draws attention to the vital role of interdisciplinary perspectives in law, history, sociology, and political science in redirecting our understanding of the origins, development, and nature of the American state. It highlights the particularly formative role of an emerging theoretical literature concerning the character of statecraft in modern democratic regimes. The paper begins with an acknowledgment of the difficulty of the state concept as articulated in the diverse contributions of American history, political sociology, and American Political Development. It goes on to question the predominance of the essentially bureaucratic and Weberian model of the state that has governed thinking about and controlled discussion of the American state for the last two generations. It concludes by using the interdisciplinary perspectives that have recently emerged in socio-legal studies in the United States to generate an alternative approach to American state development that takes account of the nature of democratic rule as well as the fungibility of the state/society boundary.Less
This chapter draws attention to the vital role of interdisciplinary perspectives in law, history, sociology, and political science in redirecting our understanding of the origins, development, and nature of the American state. It highlights the particularly formative role of an emerging theoretical literature concerning the character of statecraft in modern democratic regimes. The paper begins with an acknowledgment of the difficulty of the state concept as articulated in the diverse contributions of American history, political sociology, and American Political Development. It goes on to question the predominance of the essentially bureaucratic and Weberian model of the state that has governed thinking about and controlled discussion of the American state for the last two generations. It concludes by using the interdisciplinary perspectives that have recently emerged in socio-legal studies in the United States to generate an alternative approach to American state development that takes account of the nature of democratic rule as well as the fungibility of the state/society boundary.
Isaac Ariail Reed
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226689319
- eISBN:
- 9780226689593
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226689593.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
In Power in Modernity, Isaac Ariail Reed proposes a new theory of power that describes overlapping networks of delegation and domination. Chains of power and their representation, linking together ...
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In Power in Modernity, Isaac Ariail Reed proposes a new theory of power that describes overlapping networks of delegation and domination. Chains of power and their representation, linking together groups and individuals across time and space, create a vast network of intersecting alliances, subordinations, redistributions, and violent exclusions. Reed traces the common action of “sending someone else to do something for you”—reformulating via cultural sociology classic theories of principal and agent—as it expands outward into the hierarchies that control territories, persons, artifacts, minds, and money. He mobilizes this theory to investigate the onset of modernity in the Atlantic world, with a focus on rebellion, revolution, and state-formation in colonial North America, the early American republic, and the English Civil war and French Revolution. Modernity, Reed argues, dismantled the “King’s Two Bodies”—the monarch’s physical body and his ethereal, sacred second body that encompassed the body politic—as a schema of representation for forging power relations. This leads to a new understanding of the democratic possibilities and violent exclusions forged in the name of “the people,” as revolutionaries sought new ways to secure delegation, build hierarchy, and attack alterity. Reconsidering the role of myth in modern politics, he proposes to see the creative destruction and eternal recurrence of the King’s Two Bodies as constitutive of the modern attitude, and thus as a new starting point for critical theory. Modernity poses in a new way an eternal human question: what does it mean to be the author of one’s own actions?Less
In Power in Modernity, Isaac Ariail Reed proposes a new theory of power that describes overlapping networks of delegation and domination. Chains of power and their representation, linking together groups and individuals across time and space, create a vast network of intersecting alliances, subordinations, redistributions, and violent exclusions. Reed traces the common action of “sending someone else to do something for you”—reformulating via cultural sociology classic theories of principal and agent—as it expands outward into the hierarchies that control territories, persons, artifacts, minds, and money. He mobilizes this theory to investigate the onset of modernity in the Atlantic world, with a focus on rebellion, revolution, and state-formation in colonial North America, the early American republic, and the English Civil war and French Revolution. Modernity, Reed argues, dismantled the “King’s Two Bodies”—the monarch’s physical body and his ethereal, sacred second body that encompassed the body politic—as a schema of representation for forging power relations. This leads to a new understanding of the democratic possibilities and violent exclusions forged in the name of “the people,” as revolutionaries sought new ways to secure delegation, build hierarchy, and attack alterity. Reconsidering the role of myth in modern politics, he proposes to see the creative destruction and eternal recurrence of the King’s Two Bodies as constitutive of the modern attitude, and thus as a new starting point for critical theory. Modernity poses in a new way an eternal human question: what does it mean to be the author of one’s own actions?
Stefan Svallfors
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804754354
- eISBN:
- 9780804768153
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804754354.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
This concluding chapter analyzes the results presented in the book in relation to the development of political sociology. It argues that the papers together represent a “fourth generation” of ...
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This concluding chapter analyzes the results presented in the book in relation to the development of political sociology. It argues that the papers together represent a “fourth generation” of scholarship in the field, where institutional feedback effects in general, and public policies in particular, are analyzed in a comparative perspective. Political sociology was born in the 1940s in New York City, at Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, under the intellectual leadership of Paul Lazarsfeld. The “Columbia School” and Lazarsfeld made important contributions to the development of research in the field of political sociology. In particular, Lazarsfeld pioneered the analysis of latent structures, while the Columbia School made the first rigorous and systematic attempts to analyze the social factors that influence voting and espoused a “social determinism” in the study of political behavior, for which it came under contemporary criticism. Aside from feedback effects of institutions, other concepts such as public policies and the moral economy of welfare states have improved the conceptualization of the relation between social cleavages, political orientations, and institutions.Less
This concluding chapter analyzes the results presented in the book in relation to the development of political sociology. It argues that the papers together represent a “fourth generation” of scholarship in the field, where institutional feedback effects in general, and public policies in particular, are analyzed in a comparative perspective. Political sociology was born in the 1940s in New York City, at Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, under the intellectual leadership of Paul Lazarsfeld. The “Columbia School” and Lazarsfeld made important contributions to the development of research in the field of political sociology. In particular, Lazarsfeld pioneered the analysis of latent structures, while the Columbia School made the first rigorous and systematic attempts to analyze the social factors that influence voting and espoused a “social determinism” in the study of political behavior, for which it came under contemporary criticism. Aside from feedback effects of institutions, other concepts such as public policies and the moral economy of welfare states have improved the conceptualization of the relation between social cleavages, political orientations, and institutions.
Chris Rhomberg
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520236189
- eISBN:
- 9780520940888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520236189.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
In the early 1920s, a powerful Ku Klux Klan movement burst forth in many American cities, targeting immigrant Jews and Catholics and people of color and attracting an estimated four to six million ...
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In the early 1920s, a powerful Ku Klux Klan movement burst forth in many American cities, targeting immigrant Jews and Catholics and people of color and attracting an estimated four to six million members. This book uses an explanatory framework built on three basic analytic dimensions: socioeconomic structure, institutional politics, and urban civil society. It introduces concepts drawn from three corresponding, well-known paradigms in sociology and political science: traditional political sociology; the “new institutionalism”; and social movement theory. Furthermore, it provides a case study of three social movements in Oakland, from the point of view of urban political development in twentieth-century America. The focus is on the struggles of groups and actors to forge a political solidarity and community in an urban context. An overview of the chapters included in this book is finally presented.Less
In the early 1920s, a powerful Ku Klux Klan movement burst forth in many American cities, targeting immigrant Jews and Catholics and people of color and attracting an estimated four to six million members. This book uses an explanatory framework built on three basic analytic dimensions: socioeconomic structure, institutional politics, and urban civil society. It introduces concepts drawn from three corresponding, well-known paradigms in sociology and political science: traditional political sociology; the “new institutionalism”; and social movement theory. Furthermore, it provides a case study of three social movements in Oakland, from the point of view of urban political development in twentieth-century America. The focus is on the struggles of groups and actors to forge a political solidarity and community in an urban context. An overview of the chapters included in this book is finally presented.
Isaac Ariail Reed
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226689319
- eISBN:
- 9780226689593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226689593.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter argues that power has four dimensions—material, relational, discursive, and performative—and addresses the first three. The goal is to unpack how hierarchical ties between rector and ...
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This chapter argues that power has four dimensions—material, relational, discursive, and performative—and addresses the first three. The goal is to unpack how hierarchical ties between rector and actor are formed and how the "negative tie" between the rector-actor dyad and other is forged. The work of Alfred Gell is reconstructed as an ideal way to theorize materiality in the making and unmaking of social relations. Gell's work is contrasted with Actor Network Theory. For understanding relational power, it examines closely the work of John Levi Martin, and, for discursive power, considers Michel Foucault and Jeffrey C. Alexander. For a synthesis of material, relational and discursive power, it considers a key text by Chandra Mukerji. Throughout, the goal of the chapter is to develop these dimensions in relationship to the fundamental problematic of delegation and domination. In this way, sociological theories of power are used to articulate how actors become agents of rectors and how others are excluded. This focus is contrasted to theories of power in society that emphasize differentiation of spheres or zones of activity, such as field theory. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the "mechanization of the world," and an excursus on power and violence.Less
This chapter argues that power has four dimensions—material, relational, discursive, and performative—and addresses the first three. The goal is to unpack how hierarchical ties between rector and actor are formed and how the "negative tie" between the rector-actor dyad and other is forged. The work of Alfred Gell is reconstructed as an ideal way to theorize materiality in the making and unmaking of social relations. Gell's work is contrasted with Actor Network Theory. For understanding relational power, it examines closely the work of John Levi Martin, and, for discursive power, considers Michel Foucault and Jeffrey C. Alexander. For a synthesis of material, relational and discursive power, it considers a key text by Chandra Mukerji. Throughout, the goal of the chapter is to develop these dimensions in relationship to the fundamental problematic of delegation and domination. In this way, sociological theories of power are used to articulate how actors become agents of rectors and how others are excluded. This focus is contrasted to theories of power in society that emphasize differentiation of spheres or zones of activity, such as field theory. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the "mechanization of the world," and an excursus on power and violence.
Isaac Ariail Reed
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226689319
- eISBN:
- 9780226689593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226689593.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter develops the language of rector, actor, and other, and of "persons with projects" to work toward a new theory of power. It does so in dialogue with pragmatist theories of action and the ...
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This chapter develops the language of rector, actor, and other, and of "persons with projects" to work toward a new theory of power. It does so in dialogue with pragmatist theories of action and the theories of Orlando Patterson, Rene Girard, James Coleman, Judith Butler, and G.W.F. Hegel. In hierarchical relations, a figure is elevated to a superior position with enhanced capacity, and to such a figure discretion accrues. This is the person or group who rules, and rule enables the accomplishment of projects. Such mastery—which accrues to rectors—is dependent upon allies and subordinates (actors, who become agents) to whom tasks are delegated and from whom knowledge and expertise are gained, advice is taken, profits are stolen, and value is extracted. Power is dependent on its dependents, and an agent both stands in for, and works on behalf of, the rector. Actor becomes an agent by abdicating, in part, actor's own projects. If actor is an ally to rector, other stands outside the project, profaned. The radical uncertainty that other represents to rector and actor can become an synecdoche for the uncertainty of the world itself. There are four types of extreme alterity: enemy in war, slavery, invisibility, and scapegoat.Less
This chapter develops the language of rector, actor, and other, and of "persons with projects" to work toward a new theory of power. It does so in dialogue with pragmatist theories of action and the theories of Orlando Patterson, Rene Girard, James Coleman, Judith Butler, and G.W.F. Hegel. In hierarchical relations, a figure is elevated to a superior position with enhanced capacity, and to such a figure discretion accrues. This is the person or group who rules, and rule enables the accomplishment of projects. Such mastery—which accrues to rectors—is dependent upon allies and subordinates (actors, who become agents) to whom tasks are delegated and from whom knowledge and expertise are gained, advice is taken, profits are stolen, and value is extracted. Power is dependent on its dependents, and an agent both stands in for, and works on behalf of, the rector. Actor becomes an agent by abdicating, in part, actor's own projects. If actor is an ally to rector, other stands outside the project, profaned. The radical uncertainty that other represents to rector and actor can become an synecdoche for the uncertainty of the world itself. There are four types of extreme alterity: enemy in war, slavery, invisibility, and scapegoat.
Isaac Ariail Reed
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226689319
- eISBN:
- 9780226689593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226689593.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies reconstructed the origins and dynamics of a key piece of European political culture, according to which signs of state and signs of church were mixed ...
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Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies reconstructed the origins and dynamics of a key piece of European political culture, according to which signs of state and signs of church were mixed together so as to shore up agency problems—that is, to construct a regime of delegation and domination. It is in these terms that two iconic moments in the history of political culture can be reconsidered: Thomas Hobbes' reaction to the English Civil War in Leviathan and the trial of King Louis XVI during the French Revolution. In these moments, the problem of how to do politics when the King's Two Bodies is no longer part of the easily accepted background of political life comes into the foreground. In these moments, the problem of who is in and who is out of the people becomes central to discursive power. Via the revolution in Saint Domingue, the extension of citizenship to non-whites recast the debates over the "body politic" in Paris between 1790 and 1794. More broadly, as popular sovereignty came to replace divine Kingship as the cultural basis of decision-making and hierarchy, who counted as a person became the central political question of the age.Less
Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies reconstructed the origins and dynamics of a key piece of European political culture, according to which signs of state and signs of church were mixed together so as to shore up agency problems—that is, to construct a regime of delegation and domination. It is in these terms that two iconic moments in the history of political culture can be reconsidered: Thomas Hobbes' reaction to the English Civil War in Leviathan and the trial of King Louis XVI during the French Revolution. In these moments, the problem of how to do politics when the King's Two Bodies is no longer part of the easily accepted background of political life comes into the foreground. In these moments, the problem of who is in and who is out of the people becomes central to discursive power. Via the revolution in Saint Domingue, the extension of citizenship to non-whites recast the debates over the "body politic" in Paris between 1790 and 1794. More broadly, as popular sovereignty came to replace divine Kingship as the cultural basis of decision-making and hierarchy, who counted as a person became the central political question of the age.
Isaac Ariail Reed
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226689319
- eISBN:
- 9780226689593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226689593.003.0011
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
The introduction to part II of Power in Modernity introduces the problematic of modernity—or, to be more specific, transitions to modernity in the Atlantic world—to the analysis. In studying ...
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The introduction to part II of Power in Modernity introduces the problematic of modernity—or, to be more specific, transitions to modernity in the Atlantic world—to the analysis. In studying modernity, a useful conceptual method is to examine revolt and rebellion; when power formations falter and violence breaks out, then we see the articulation of the underlying cognitive, moral, and aesthetic orders that render politics possible. It is also possible that we will see therein new formats of politics performed into being. In moments of revolt—trouble at the edge of empire—the imagination of the state and the logistics of the state's operation come together and co-illuminate each other in the urgency of circumstances. In other words, liminality reveals regime. Conceptual points of focus for building the historical interpretations that follow include: examining the nexus of violence and alliance in the making of politics; tracing signs across zones of activity; being aware that, during crisis, emic philosophies or right explode into speech and writing, and that, amidst revolt and uncertainty, everyone is a political philosopher; and utilizing the rector-actor-other vocabulary so that it allows us to see that the politics of representation admits not only struggle and strategy, but also fantasy.Less
The introduction to part II of Power in Modernity introduces the problematic of modernity—or, to be more specific, transitions to modernity in the Atlantic world—to the analysis. In studying modernity, a useful conceptual method is to examine revolt and rebellion; when power formations falter and violence breaks out, then we see the articulation of the underlying cognitive, moral, and aesthetic orders that render politics possible. It is also possible that we will see therein new formats of politics performed into being. In moments of revolt—trouble at the edge of empire—the imagination of the state and the logistics of the state's operation come together and co-illuminate each other in the urgency of circumstances. In other words, liminality reveals regime. Conceptual points of focus for building the historical interpretations that follow include: examining the nexus of violence and alliance in the making of politics; tracing signs across zones of activity; being aware that, during crisis, emic philosophies or right explode into speech and writing, and that, amidst revolt and uncertainty, everyone is a political philosopher; and utilizing the rector-actor-other vocabulary so that it allows us to see that the politics of representation admits not only struggle and strategy, but also fantasy.
Alissa Cordner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231171465
- eISBN:
- 9780231541381
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231171465.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Science, Technology and Environment
Initially marketed as a life-saving advancement, flame retardants are now mired in controversy. Some argue that data show the chemicals are unsafe while others continue to support their use. The ...
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Initially marketed as a life-saving advancement, flame retardants are now mired in controversy. Some argue that data show the chemicals are unsafe while others continue to support their use. The tactics of each side have far-reaching consequences for how we interpret new scientific discoveries. An experienced environmental sociologist, Alissa Cordner conducts more than a hundred interviews with activists, scientists, regulators, and industry professionals to isolate the social, scientific, economic, and political forces influencing environmental health policy today. Introducing “strategic science translation,” she describes how stakeholders use scientific evidence to support nonscientific goals and construct “conceptual risk formulas” to shape risk assessment and the interpretation of empirical evidence. A revelatory text for public-health advocates, Toxic Safety demonstrates that while all parties interested in health issues use science to support their claims, they do not compete on a level playing field and even good intentions can have deleterious effects.Less
Initially marketed as a life-saving advancement, flame retardants are now mired in controversy. Some argue that data show the chemicals are unsafe while others continue to support their use. The tactics of each side have far-reaching consequences for how we interpret new scientific discoveries. An experienced environmental sociologist, Alissa Cordner conducts more than a hundred interviews with activists, scientists, regulators, and industry professionals to isolate the social, scientific, economic, and political forces influencing environmental health policy today. Introducing “strategic science translation,” she describes how stakeholders use scientific evidence to support nonscientific goals and construct “conceptual risk formulas” to shape risk assessment and the interpretation of empirical evidence. A revelatory text for public-health advocates, Toxic Safety demonstrates that while all parties interested in health issues use science to support their claims, they do not compete on a level playing field and even good intentions can have deleterious effects.
Jason Beckfield
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190492472
- eISBN:
- 9780190492502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190492472.003.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Public Health
In this chapter, the author discusses several concepts, measures, and datasets that open new avenues for social epidemiologists to use political sociology to explain the distribution of population ...
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In this chapter, the author discusses several concepts, measures, and datasets that open new avenues for social epidemiologists to use political sociology to explain the distribution of population health. He also describes how social epidemiological concepts can feed back into political sociology to advance its agenda of understanding the social organization of power. Three themes integrate the concerns of these still-disconnected fields: (1) conceptualization of etiologic period, (2) definition of population, and (3) distinction between population averages and population variances. Mutual appreciation of the key concepts for each field is essential for the development of synthetic engagement between political sociology and social epidemiology.Less
In this chapter, the author discusses several concepts, measures, and datasets that open new avenues for social epidemiologists to use political sociology to explain the distribution of population health. He also describes how social epidemiological concepts can feed back into political sociology to advance its agenda of understanding the social organization of power. Three themes integrate the concerns of these still-disconnected fields: (1) conceptualization of etiologic period, (2) definition of population, and (3) distinction between population averages and population variances. Mutual appreciation of the key concepts for each field is essential for the development of synthetic engagement between political sociology and social epidemiology.
Stefan Svallfors
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804754354
- eISBN:
- 9780804768153
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804754354.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
Political sociologists study the link between social and political life, primarily by understanding variations in the relationship between social structure, political orientations, and political ...
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Political sociologists study the link between social and political life, primarily by understanding variations in the relationship between social structure, political orientations, and political action, and by explaining the patterns that arise. Political sociology thus encompasses issues ranging from the orientations and action patterns of mass publics, the rise and fall of political parties, and the development and effects of political institutions. This book explores variations and mechanisms underlying the interrelationships among political institutions, social cleavages, and orientations among citizens in advanced industrial societies. It documents changes in welfare states and decision-making arrangements, along with variations of and mechanisms behind individual-level political orientations and identity formation. The chapter outlines the current main patterns of change in welfare states and decision-making structures, and presents the book's conceptual framework of analysis, including key concepts such as political articulation, moral economy, orientations, social cleavages, institutional feedback effects, and institutions.Less
Political sociologists study the link between social and political life, primarily by understanding variations in the relationship between social structure, political orientations, and political action, and by explaining the patterns that arise. Political sociology thus encompasses issues ranging from the orientations and action patterns of mass publics, the rise and fall of political parties, and the development and effects of political institutions. This book explores variations and mechanisms underlying the interrelationships among political institutions, social cleavages, and orientations among citizens in advanced industrial societies. It documents changes in welfare states and decision-making arrangements, along with variations of and mechanisms behind individual-level political orientations and identity formation. The chapter outlines the current main patterns of change in welfare states and decision-making structures, and presents the book's conceptual framework of analysis, including key concepts such as political articulation, moral economy, orientations, social cleavages, institutional feedback effects, and institutions.
Jason Beckfield
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190492472
- eISBN:
- 9780190492502
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190492472.001.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Public Health
Health, illness, and death are distributed unequally around the world. Babies born in Japan can expect to live to age 80 or over, while babies born in Malawi can expect to die before the age of 50. ...
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Health, illness, and death are distributed unequally around the world. Babies born in Japan can expect to live to age 80 or over, while babies born in Malawi can expect to die before the age of 50. As important, birth into one race, class, and gender within one society vs. another also matters enormously for one’s health. To answer such questions about social inequalities in health, Political Sociology and the People’s Health responds to two research trends that are motivating scholarship at the leading edge of inquiry into population health. First, social epidemiology is turning toward policy and politics to explain the unequal global distribution of population health. Second, social stratification research is turning toward new conceptualizations and theorizations of how institutions—the “rules of the game” that organize power in social life—distribute social goods, including health. Political Sociology and the People’s Health advances these two turns by developing new hypotheses that integrate insights from political sociology and social epidemiology. Political sociology offers a rich array of concepts, measures, and data that help social epidemiologists develop new hypotheses about how macroscopic factors like social policy, labor markets, and the racialized and gendered state shape the distribution of population health. Social epidemiology offers innovative approaches to the conceptualization and measurement of population, etiologic period, and distribution that can advance research on the relationships between institutions and inequalities. Developing the conversation between these fields, Political Sociology and the People’s Health describes how human institutional arrangements distribute life and death.Less
Health, illness, and death are distributed unequally around the world. Babies born in Japan can expect to live to age 80 or over, while babies born in Malawi can expect to die before the age of 50. As important, birth into one race, class, and gender within one society vs. another also matters enormously for one’s health. To answer such questions about social inequalities in health, Political Sociology and the People’s Health responds to two research trends that are motivating scholarship at the leading edge of inquiry into population health. First, social epidemiology is turning toward policy and politics to explain the unequal global distribution of population health. Second, social stratification research is turning toward new conceptualizations and theorizations of how institutions—the “rules of the game” that organize power in social life—distribute social goods, including health. Political Sociology and the People’s Health advances these two turns by developing new hypotheses that integrate insights from political sociology and social epidemiology. Political sociology offers a rich array of concepts, measures, and data that help social epidemiologists develop new hypotheses about how macroscopic factors like social policy, labor markets, and the racialized and gendered state shape the distribution of population health. Social epidemiology offers innovative approaches to the conceptualization and measurement of population, etiologic period, and distribution that can advance research on the relationships between institutions and inequalities. Developing the conversation between these fields, Political Sociology and the People’s Health describes how human institutional arrangements distribute life and death.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804756501
- eISBN:
- 9780804774215
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804756501.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
Raymond Aron believed that the principal axis of division between totalitarianism and constitutional pluralism lay in the role of the political party. Hannah Arendt, by contrast, had little to say ...
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Raymond Aron believed that the principal axis of division between totalitarianism and constitutional pluralism lay in the role of the political party. Hannah Arendt, by contrast, had little to say about political parties, unless it was to contrast them invidiously with the spontaneous participation of revolutionary councils. Where Arendt saw unprecedented events, Aron stressed the dynamic between continuity and “mutation,” social logic and chance, necessity and accident, process and drama. This chapter suggests that Aron offers a subtle, sober, and logical account of totalitarianism in which the tools of political sociology are employed to impressive effect, and does not deny the reality of the political.Less
Raymond Aron believed that the principal axis of division between totalitarianism and constitutional pluralism lay in the role of the political party. Hannah Arendt, by contrast, had little to say about political parties, unless it was to contrast them invidiously with the spontaneous participation of revolutionary councils. Where Arendt saw unprecedented events, Aron stressed the dynamic between continuity and “mutation,” social logic and chance, necessity and accident, process and drama. This chapter suggests that Aron offers a subtle, sober, and logical account of totalitarianism in which the tools of political sociology are employed to impressive effect, and does not deny the reality of the political.
Daniel Nehring, Gerardo Gómez Michel, and Magdalena López
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781529200997
- eISBN:
- 9781529201345
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529200997.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
The introduction explores the cultural dynamics of neoliberalism and anti-neoliberal resistance in Latin America. While Latin American neoliberalisms and the regions transition – perhaps temporary – ...
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The introduction explores the cultural dynamics of neoliberalism and anti-neoliberal resistance in Latin America. While Latin American neoliberalisms and the regions transition – perhaps temporary – to post-neoliberalism have been extensively debated (Dávila 2012, Flores-Macias 2012, Goodale and Postero 2013), extant research has largely focused on relevant political and socio-economic processes. The cultural dynamics of neoliberalism, anti-neoliberalism and post-neoliberalism, in terms of the discursive construction of neoliberal common sense and the organisation of everyday beliefs, norms, values and systems of meaning, have received far less attention. The introductory chapter then sketches the subject matter of the following case studies. Together, the studies in this volume seek to address this gap. They pursue three objectives. First, they seek to explore how neoliberal narratives of self and social relationships have transformed everyday life in contemporary Latin America. Second, they examine how these narratives are being contested and supplanted by a diversity of alternative modes of experience and practices in a diversity of settings, in the context of anti-neoliberal and post-neoliberal socio-political programmes. In this context, the studies in this book address the questions to what extent contemporary Latin America might in fact be described as post-neoliberal, given the crisis of political challenges to neoliberalism in societies such as Venezuela, Argentina or Bolivia. Third, the following chapters interrogate the discourses and cultural practices through which a societal consensus for the pursuit of neoliberal politics may be established, defended and contested.Less
The introduction explores the cultural dynamics of neoliberalism and anti-neoliberal resistance in Latin America. While Latin American neoliberalisms and the regions transition – perhaps temporary – to post-neoliberalism have been extensively debated (Dávila 2012, Flores-Macias 2012, Goodale and Postero 2013), extant research has largely focused on relevant political and socio-economic processes. The cultural dynamics of neoliberalism, anti-neoliberalism and post-neoliberalism, in terms of the discursive construction of neoliberal common sense and the organisation of everyday beliefs, norms, values and systems of meaning, have received far less attention. The introductory chapter then sketches the subject matter of the following case studies. Together, the studies in this volume seek to address this gap. They pursue three objectives. First, they seek to explore how neoliberal narratives of self and social relationships have transformed everyday life in contemporary Latin America. Second, they examine how these narratives are being contested and supplanted by a diversity of alternative modes of experience and practices in a diversity of settings, in the context of anti-neoliberal and post-neoliberal socio-political programmes. In this context, the studies in this book address the questions to what extent contemporary Latin America might in fact be described as post-neoliberal, given the crisis of political challenges to neoliberalism in societies such as Venezuela, Argentina or Bolivia. Third, the following chapters interrogate the discourses and cultural practices through which a societal consensus for the pursuit of neoliberal politics may be established, defended and contested.