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This volume offers a reappraisal of Parsons' work by leading social theorists, who place his writing at the centre of current controversies over modernity, postmodernity and globalization. The wide-ranging discussion encompasses Parsons' value commitments and his place in American social theory, the problems of interpreting his work today, his conception of world history, and the contemporary neofunctionalist movement. Parsons' own work is represented by a previously neglected essay on American values that is central to an understanding of his analysis of modernization.
List of contents
An Introduction to Talcott Parsons - Roland Robertson and Bryan S Turner
Theory, Politics and Humanity
The American Value System - Victor Lidz
A Commentary on Talcott Parsons¿s Perspective and Understanding
A Tentative Outline of American Values - Talcott Parsons
Practice Against Theory in American Sociology - Harold J Bershady
an Exercise in the Sociology of Knowledge
The Structure of Social Action - Mark Gould
At Least Sixty Years Ahead of Its Time
Influence and Solidarity - Victor Lidz
Defining a Conceptual Core for Sociology
The Central Significance of ¿Religion¿ in Social Theory - Roland Robertson
Parsons as an Epical Theorist
Parsons and Modernity - Frank J Lechner
An Interpretation
Simmel and Parsons Reconsidered - Donald N Levine
From Sick Role to Health Role - Arthur W Frank
Deconstructing Parsons
The Political Orientation of Talcott Parsons - Jens Kaalhauge Nielsen
the Second World War and its Aftermath
Neo-functionalism and the ¿New Theoretical Movement¿ - Bryan S Turner
The Post-Parsonian Rapprochement between Germany and America
How to Read Parsons - Bryan S Turner and Roland Robertson
About the author
Roland Robertson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. His books include International Systems and the Modernization of Societies (with J P Nettl, 1968) The Sociological Interpretation of Religion (1970) Meaning and Change: Explorations in the Cultural Sociology of Modern Societies (1978), Religion and Global Order (co-edited with William R Garrett, 1991) and Talcott Parsons: Theorist of Modernity (co-edited with Bryan S TurnerBryan S. Turner is Professor of Sociology in the Asian Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore. Previously he was Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge from 1998-2005. His research interests include globalization and religion, concentrating on such issues as religious conflict and the modern state, religious authority and electronic information, religious, consumerism and youth cultures, human rights and religion, the human body, medical change, and religious cosmologies. He is Joint Chief Editor of the journal Citizenship Studies and serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals.
Summary
Offers a reappraisal of sociologist Talcott Parsons' work by social theorists who place his writing at the centre of current controversies over modernity, postmodernity and globalization. The contributors examine the problems in the interpretation of Parsons' work.
