{"title":"Capitalism is capitalism, not technofeudalism","authors":"Nicholas Gane","doi":"10.1177/1468795x241269293","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795x241269293","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it assesses Yanis Varoufakis’ theory of technofeudalism, and will argue, by way of response, that capitalism has not been displaced by a resurgence of feudalism, but is taking new forms that, increasingly, lie outside the powers of nation-states and of social democracy. Second, it questions the ‘libertarian Marxist’ alternative that Varoufakis proposes in its place, which abdicates any interest in the regulatory powers of the state and, paradoxically, advocates consumer-based political action to damage the market position of big corporate entities, even though markets and profits are said to be no longer central to the operation of technofeudalism.","PeriodicalId":508225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Classical Sociology","volume":"41 51","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141924135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The degradation of the analytic-synthetic method in Herbert Spencer’s sociology","authors":"Jan Maršálek","doi":"10.1177/1468795x241268851","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795x241268851","url":null,"abstract":"In order to illustrate the degradation of a method, we will examine Herbert Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (1874–1898, three volumes). The analytic-synthetic method introduced into ‘civil philosophy’ by Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century is chosen as the point of reference for the assessment of the status the analysis acquires in Spencer’s work. A comparison of the two editions of The Principles of Psychology reinforces our epistemological reading of a man who, despite his best efforts, could not rid himself of a method whose legitimacy he denied.","PeriodicalId":508225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Classical Sociology","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141928061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Translating phenomenology: Alfred Schutz and his many afterlives in American sociology","authors":"Besnik Pula","doi":"10.1177/1468795x241268350","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795x241268350","url":null,"abstract":"The impact of transnational influences in the making of postwar sociology in the United States is often acknowledged. However, phenomenology is rarely counted among these influences in spite of its apparently oversized impact on disciplinary development during a critical period of intellectual contention. This article sheds light on this process through an analysis of the impact and legacy of social phenomenologist and European intellectual migrant Alfred Schutz (1899–1959). After 1960, Schutz’s theoretical writings became a powerful resource for innovators and critics in the discipline. What is unexplained is the sudden rise to prominence of Schutzian phenomenology in theoretical and methodological debates in American sociology, and the way phenomenological insights became incorporated into the discipline. The article identifies three translational strategies employed by translator-agents in the incorporation of Schutzian phenomenology into American sociology. The article not only discusses the peculiar history of Schutz’s ideas, but also uses Schutz’s theoretical framework to develop the concept of translational work and demonstrate its relevance for the disciplinary assimilation of ideas across intellectual contexts.","PeriodicalId":508225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Classical Sociology","volume":"8 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141928837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Method for an historical political sociology of religion","authors":"Andrew McKinnon","doi":"10.1177/1468795x241257459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795x241257459","url":null,"abstract":"The work of Shailer Mathews (1863-1941) offers an important, though neglected, sociological theory of the evolution of religion. A theologian and long-time dean of the divinity school at the University of Chicago, Mathews develops his sociological understanding as a foundation for articulating a theology adequate to the needs of the modern age. Influenced by evolutionary currents of thought, interpreted along pragmatist lines, Mathews sees religion as part of the will to life, a vital means of adapting, and adapting to, the cosmos, understood in personal terms. By entreating the cosmos in personal terms, Mathews illuminates the intertwined development of religion and the state, with attendant changes to the predominant understanding of the gods.","PeriodicalId":508225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Classical Sociology","volume":" 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141372526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Max Weber’s Athens: The entanglement between charismatic domination and non-legitimate domination","authors":"Can Mert Kökerer","doi":"10.1177/1468795x241249001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795x241249001","url":null,"abstract":"Contemporary reconstructions of Max Weber’s theory of democracy have failed to recognise Weber’s comparative-historical approach vis-à-vis the question of democracy. This article addresses this gap with respect to his understanding of Athenian democracy. It demonstrates that Weber’s interpretation of Athenian democracy provides a dual understanding of domination. On the one hand, Weber describes the demagogues in Athens as exercising charismatic domination through their oratory skills over ordinary citizens. On the other hand, Weber characterises the institutional structure of Athenian democracy with the atypical case of non-legitimate domination [ nichtlegitime Herrschaft]. Weber maintains that the holders of office in Athens were ultimately accountable and responsible to the ordinary people who exercised their political power in popular assemblies and popular courts. Weber interprets Athenian democracy as characterised by the entanglement between charismatic domination and non-legitimate domination. Thus, this article argues that Weber’s concept of Herrschaft is an open concept which results in his amalgamation of charismatic domination and non-legitimate domination in explaining the institutionalisation of Athenian democracy. In the end, how to maintain political leadership within democratic institutional structures was the question of democracy for Weber.","PeriodicalId":508225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Classical Sociology","volume":"54 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140662202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Multiplex colonial sociology","authors":"Gregor McLennan","doi":"10.1177/1468795x231221422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795x231221422","url":null,"abstract":"This article assesses George Steinmetz’s The Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought: French Sociology and the Overseas Empire. Princeton University Press. Princeton and Oxford, 2023. ISBN 9780691237428 (hbk) xvi + 551. Expertly illuminating the neglected constellation of French colonial sociology, Steinmetz emphatically extends recent reconciliatory moves on the question of decolonizing sociology. With and beyond Bourdieu, taxing issues persist concerning the nature of the perspective being rehabilitated and the one being marshalled in analysis.","PeriodicalId":508225,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Classical Sociology","volume":"45 31","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139442333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}