1st Edition
The Routledge International Handbook of Talcott Parsons Studies
Talcott Parsons was the leading theorist in American sociology—and perhaps in world sociology—from the 1940s to the 1970s. He created the dominant school of thought that made "Parsonian" a standard description of a theoretical attempt to unify social science, as reflected in the fact that his contributions to the discipline cover a range of issues, including medicine, the family, religion, law, the economy, race relations, and politics—to name but a few. This volume brings together leading scholars working in the field of "Parsonian Studies" to explore the background of Parsons’s work, the content of his oeuvre, and his subsequent influence. Thematically organized, it covers Parsons’s contributions and impacts in areas including the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences; cultural sociology; personality, mental illness, and psychoanalysis; and economics and political and economic sociology. In addition, it considers his influence in different areas of the world and on particular students, and offers insights into the Parsonian tradition’s practical application to contemporary social issues. An authoritative, comprehensive, and in-depth critical assessment of the Parsonian legacy, The Routledge International Handbook of Talcott Parsons Studies will appeal to scholars across the social sciences and in sociology and social theory in particular, with interests in the history of sociology and the enduring relevance of Talcott Parsons.
1. Introduction: The Scope and Significance of Talcott Parsons Studies
A. Javier Treviño and Helmut Staubmann
Part I: Methodology and Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Introduction
Helmut Staubmann
2. Backstage with the Parsons circle: Charisma, Dialogue, and Dissent in the Formation of a Theory School
Lawrence T. Nichols
3. Interpreting and Critiquing Talcott Parsons’s Human Condition Paradigm
Victor M. Lidz and Harold J. Bershady
4. The Theory of Action and the Analysis of Culture
Victor M. Lidz
5. The "Cognitive Complex" and Globalization: Conclusions for the Future of Higher Education and Research
Helmut Staubmann and Victor M. Lidz
6. Parsons/Habermas, Scientific Sociology/Critical Theory, and a Natural Law Theory of Morality
Mark Gould
7. The Analytical Realism of Talcott Parsons: A Sketch of the Theorist as Essay Writer Bruce C. Wearne
Part II: Illness, Personality, and Psychoanalysis
Introduction
A. Javier Treviño
8. Double-Deviance: The Case of Drug Offenders
Günter Stummvoll
9. Towards a Codification of Parsons’s Theory of Psychopathology
A. Javier Treviño
10. Durkheim and Freud: Parsons and the Diaglogue between Sociology and Psychoanalysis
Raquel Weiss and Luciano Assis Mattuella
11. The Sociological Reception of Psychoanalysis within Parsons’s "The Superego and the Theory of Social Systems"
Katharina Hechl
Part III: Economics and Politics
Introduction
A. Javier Treviño
12. Parsons and Sociological Economics
Milan Zafirovski
13. Parsons, the Symbolic Media, and Weber’s View of Power and Stratification
John Scott
14. Norms, Interests, and Desirable Futures: Exploring Contemporary Political Upheavals through the Voluntaristic Theory of Action
Bettina Mahlert
15. Parsons on the International System and Global Society
Gert Verschraegen
16. The Problem of "Race" in Talcott Parsons’s Account of the Citizenship Complex
John Holmwood
17. Parsons and the "Problem" of Ethnicity and Race in Modern Society
Giuseppe Sciortino
Part IV: Parsons and His Students
Introduction
Helmut Staubmann
18. A Revolutionary Science and its Carriers: On Talcott Parsons, Robert N. Bellah, and Teacher-Pupil Chains in Scholarly Fields
Matteo Bortolini
19. Talcott Parsons and Harold Garfinkel: The Development of Culture as Interaction
Jason Turowetz and Anne Warfield Rawls
20. Talcott Parsons and Clifford Geertz: Modernization, Functionalism, and Interpretive Social Science
Andrea Cossu
21. Niklas Luhmann and Talcott Parsons
Raf Vanderstraeten
22. Talcott Parsons and Robert K. Merton: A Bibliometric Assessment of their Intellectual Impact
Philipp Korom
Part V: Parsons’s Influence in Various Countries and World Regions
Introduction
Helmut Staubmann
23. Talcott Parsons and the Tradition of Max Weber: Influence on German-Speaking Sociology
Helmut Staubmann and Victor M. Lidz
24. Evolutionary Universals in Czechoslovak Society: Talcott Parsons, the Prague Spring, and Structures of Interest
Jan Balon
25. Talcott Parsons in Brazil
Hugo Neri and Veridiana Domingos Cordeiro
26. Talcott Parsons and Italian Sociology: A Complex and (Perhaps) Surprising Story
Andrea Cossu and Matteo Bortolini
Biography
A. Javier Treviño is Professor of Sociology at Wheaton College, U.S.A. He is the author of The Social Thought of C. Wright Mills; C. Wright Mills and the Cuban Revolution: An Exercise in the Art of Sociological Imagination; and The Emerald Guide to C. Wright Mills. He is the editor of Talcott Parsons on Law and the Legal System; Talcott Parsons Today: His Theory and Legacy in Contemporary Sociology; and The Anthem Companion to Talcott Parsons.
Helmut Staubmann is Professor of Social Theory and Cultural Sociology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He is the editor of The Rolling Stones: Sociological Perspectives and Action Theory: Methodological Studies, and the co-editor of Rationality in the Social Sciences: The Schumpeter-Parsons Seminar 1939–40 and Current Perspectives (with Victor Lidz) and Georg Simmel: Rembrandt: An Essay in the Philosophy of Art (with Alan Scott).
‘En somme, cet excellent Routledge International Handbook of Talcott Parsons Studies s’avère être une inspiration pour les chercheurs en sociologie de l’action, en sociologie de l’enfance, en théories sociales. Il n’est indispensable d’être familier avec les travaux de Talcott Parsons pour pouvoir le suivre ou l’apprécier.’ – Yves Laberge, Amerika: Mémoires, identités, territoires
'Overall, the excellent Routledge International Handbook of Talcott Parsons Studies promises to be an inspiration for researchers in the sociology of action, the sociology of childhood and in social theory. It is not essential to be familiar with the work of Talcott Parsons to be able to follow or appreciate the book.’ – Yves Laberge, Amerika: Mémoires, identités, territoires
