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  1. On Latour’s Social Theory and Theory of Society, and His Contribution to Saving the World.Gesa Lindemann - 2011 - Human Studies 34 (1):93-110.
    Latour is widely considered a critic and renewer of research in the social sciences. The ecologically minded Left has also acclaimed him as a theorist interested in bringing nature back both into sociological theory and into society and politics. To enable a more detailed discussion of Latour’s claims, I will here outline his theory and the ways in which it is related to classical theory, such as Durkheim, and the methodology of the interpretive paradigm, such as Schütz. My thesis is (...)
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  • On the Critique of `Utilitarian' Theories of Action.Donald N. Levine - 2000 - Theory, Culture and Society 17 (1):63-78.
    Although Parsons encountered the works of both Simmel and Weber during his stay at Heidelberg in the late 1920s, his appropriation of the two became increasingly asymmetrical, issuing in a lifelong devotion to Weber and a pronounced disavowal of Simmel around the time Parsons published The Structure of Social Action. This reaction deprived Parsons of the substantial support he could have found in Simmel's work for his effort to counteract `utilitarian' theories of action. Simmel not only went beyond Parsons in (...)
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  • Parsons' Action Theory and the Common Culture Thesis.Frank Lechner - 1984 - Theory, Culture and Society 2 (2):71-83.
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  • Re-Imagining Business Agency through Multi-Agent Cross-Sector Coalitions: Integrating CSR Frameworks.David Lal & Philipp Dorstewitz - 2021 - Philosophy of Management 21 (1):87-103.
    This theoretical paper takes an agency-theoretic approach to questions of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A comparison of various extant frameworks focusses on how CSR agency emerges in complex multi-agent and multi-sector stakeholder networks. The discussion considers the respective capabilities and relevance of these frameworks – culminating in an integrative CSR practice model. A short literature review of the evolution of CSR since the 1950’s provides the backdrop for understanding multi-agent cross-sectoral stakeholder coalitions as a strategic determinant of today’s organizational behavior. (...)
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  • From Norms to Trust: The Luhmannian Connections between Trust and System.Janne Jalava - 2003 - European Journal of Social Theory 6 (2):173-190.
    This article explores the concept of trust put forth by Niklas Luhmann and Talcott Parsons. It shows the outline of Luhmann's theory of trust and its connections to his autopoietic systems theory. It also deliberates upon the role of trust in the Luhmannian research of future society as well as examines the role of trust in risk society and shows why norms, values and familiarity play only a peripheral role in today's society. Trust is a way to control everyday interaction (...)
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  • The Meaning Structure of Social Networks.Jan A. Fuhse - 2009 - Sociological Theory 27 (1):51 - 73.
    This essay proposes to view networks as sociocultural structures. Following authors from Leopold von Wiese and Norbert Elias to Gary Alan Fine and Harrison White, networks are configurations of social relationships interwoven with meaning. Social relationships as the basic building blocks of networks are conceived of as dynamic structures of reciprocal (but not necessarily symmetric) expectations between alter and ego. Through their transactions, alter and ego construct an idiosyncratic "relationship culture" comprising symbols, narratives, and relational identities. The coupling of social (...)
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  • Sustainable Development: Lost Meaning and Opportunity?A. H. T. Fergus & J. I. A. Rowney - 2005 - Journal of Business Ethics 60 (1):17-27.
    The term Sustainable Development has been used in many different contexts and consequently has come to represent many different ideas. The purpose of this paper was to explore the underlying meaning of the term Sustainable Development, and to assess the dominant ethic behind such meaning. Through this exploration, we uncovered a change in the semantic meaning of the term, and described what that meaning entails. The term Sustainable Development had the potential, we argue, to stimulate discursive engagement with respect to (...)
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  • Reframing Habermas’s colonization thesis: Neoliberalism as relinguistification.Roderick Condon - 2021 - European Journal of Social Theory 24 (4):507-525.
    While the critique of neoliberalism, as the form of contemporary capitalism, has been advanced from Marxian and Foucauldian perspectives, it has had limited attention from the perspective of Critical Theory. Largely unrecognized is the suitability of the theory of reification for this critique, specifically, Habermas’s version. This article reconsiders Habermas’s colonization thesis as the basis for a critical theory of neoliberalism, refining its theoretical framework to deepen its critical diagnosis. Against the dismissal of the system–lifeworld concept, a novel critique is (...)
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  • The postmodern origin of ritual.David Cheal - 1988 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 18 (3):269–290.
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  • A reappraisal of the concept of 'culture'.Larry Brownstein - 1995 - Social Epistemology 9 (4):311 – 351.
    Abstract This investigation considers a number of approaches to the definition and analysis of ?culture?. It shows that although approaches to culture span a wide range of viewpoints, there are gems that can be distilled and developed. To that end, a definition of ?culture? is proposed that it is contended captures much of the positive character in what has preceded it and hopefully avoids the negative. This is followed by a discussion of some of the most important studies concerned with (...)
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  • What is a deliberative system? A tale of two ontologies.Mark Bevir & Kai Yui Samuel Chan - 2023 - European Journal of Political Theory 22 (3):445-464.
    Deliberative systems theorists have not explained what a deliberative system is. There are two problems here for deliberative systems theory: an empirical problem of boundaries (how to delineate the content of a deliberative system) and a normative problem of evaluation (how to evaluate the deliberation within a deliberative system). We argue that an adequate response to these problems requires a clear ontology. The existing literature suggests two coherent but mutually exclusive ontologies. A functionalist ontology postulates self-sustaining deliberative systems with their (...)
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  • The Meaning of Culture.Dirk Baecker - 1997 - Thesis Eleven 51 (1):37-51.
    The article inquires into the uneasiness of sociological systems theory about culture. Culture alternatively is called the solution to the problem of double contingency (Parsons) and removed from this solution (Luhmann). It is shown that meaning is the more basic term whose description reveals a form rule of social systems which is only patterned, yet not understood by culture. Culture is a memory and control device of society. It may be conceived of as providing the distinction of correct versus incorrect (...)
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  • Marxist axioms as self-contradictory Parsonian statements in sociology.Jan Ajzner - 2000 - Human Studies 23 (2):157-178.
    This paper examines the implicit foundations of several theoretical propositions characteristic of the Marxist tradition in sociology. It argues that these propositions derive from self-contradictory critical premises which are paradoxes of Action Theory. Implicit in these premises is an ideal picture of social reality quite different from the one analytically described by Parsons. I suggest that Action Theory can provide conceptual tools needed to address some specific issues characteristic of the Marxist perspective and, moreover, offers a solution to some epistemological (...)
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  • Complexity theories, social theory, and the question of social complexity.Peter Stewart - 2001 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 31 (3):323-360.
    In this article, the author argues that complexity theories have limited use in the study of society, and that social processes are too complex and particular to be rigorously modeled in complexity terms. Theories of social complexity are shown to be inadequately developed, and typical weaknesses in the literature on social complexity are discussed. Two stronger analyses, of Luhmann and of Harvey and Reed, are also critically considered. New considerations regarding social complexity are advanced, on the lines that simplicity, complexity (...)
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  • Triple contingency: The theoretical problem of the public in communication societies.Piet Strydom - 1999 - Philosophy and Social Criticism 25 (2):1-25.
    This paper seeks to show that the proposition of 'double contingency' introduced by Parsons and defended by Luhmann and Habermas is insufficient under the conditions of contemporary communication societies. In the latter context, the increasing differentiation and organization of communication processes eventuated in the recognition of the epistemic authority of the public, which in turn compels us to conceptualize a new level of contingency. A first step is therefore taken to capture the role of the public in communication societies theoretically (...)
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  • Axiomatic world theory: An overview the general theory of evolution in brief.Donald Rudin - 1996 - World Futures 46 (2):85-124.
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  • The sequential production of social acts in conversation.Wolfgang Ludwig Schneider - 2000 - Human Studies 23 (2):123-144.
    With reference to Mead, Peirce, speech act theory, conversation analysis, and Luhmann's phenomenological grounded version of systems theory, the paper tries to reconstruct actions as products of communication. A triadic sequence is identified as the elementary unit for the intersubjective constitution of an act. This unit combines three achievements: (a) the constitution of meaning by sequential attribution, (b) the intersubjective coordination of attributed meanings, and (c) the reproduction of rules, guiding the process of constitution and coordination of attributed meanings. Then, (...)
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  • The Making of Parsons’s The American University.Raf Vanderstraeten - 2015 - Minerva 53 (4):307-325.
    Talcott Parsons is often identified as the ‘master’ of mid-twentieth-century social theory. In the 1960s and 1970s, however, his writings were hardly any longer discussed, but mostly neglected. The American University is Parsons’s last monograph published during his lifetime. On the basis of extensive archival research, this paper discusses the conception, construction and publication of this monograph. The first section clarifies how and why some fine distinctions were made within ‘the team,’ viz. between co-author, collaborator and editorial associate. The second (...)
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  • Parsons on Christianity.Raf Vanderstraeten - 2016 - Thesis Eleven 132 (1):50-61.
    In his late work on Christianity, Talcott Parsons obviously built upon the writings of both Durkheim and Weber. While he departed from the idea that increasing differentiation of the system of action did not have to threaten the unity of the system as a whole, his emphasis on structural differentiation was also complemented by one on value integration. He believed that, especially in the New World, religion (i.e. Christianity) has gradually become able to impose its definition of the situation in (...)
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  • Foundations of Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Social Systems.Alex Viskovatoff - 1999 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 29 (4):481-516.
    Of all contemporary social theorists, Luhmann has best understood the centrality of the concept of meaning to social theory and has most extensively worked out the notion's implications. However, despite the power of his theory, the theory suffers from difficulties impeding its reception. This article attempts to remedy this situation with some critical arguments and proposals for revision. First, the theory Luhmann adopted from biology as the basis of his own theory was a poor choice since that theory has no (...)
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  • Parsons’ Freud.John O'Neill - 1998 - Cultural Values 2 (4):518-532.
    . Parsons’ Freud. Cultural Values: Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 518-532.
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