This book explores and proposes original definitions of central terms in political sociology and social theory, including political culture, imaginary, ideology, and utopia, in a manner that renders the individual definitions consistent with one another as part of a single and general conceptual framework for understanding social action. Through a Weberian distinction between means, ends, and values, together with the thought of Alfred Schütz and phenomenological sociology more generally, it sheds light on the ways in which the book’s key concepts make sense of social action, advancing the view that, rather than some promised land or aspiration, utopia is a project of broad and far-reaching collective action realized in its own enactment. As such, the book will appeal to scholars of social theory, political sociology, and political theory.
Introduction
1. A Finalistic Theory of Social Action
2. Political Culture
3. Social Imaginaries
4. Ideology
5. Utopia
Conclusions
Biography
Ambrogio Santambrogio is Full Professor of Sociology in the Department of Political Science at the University of Perugia, Italy.
