Talcott Parsons
Theorist of Modernity
Edited by:
May 1991 | 272 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
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.
Roland Robertson and Bryan S Turner
An Introduction to Talcott Parsons
Victor Lidz
The American Value System
Talcott Parsons
A Tentative Outline of American Values
Harold J Bershady
Practice Against Theory in American Sociology
Mark Gould
The Structure of Social Action
Victor Lidz
Influence and Solidarity
Roland Robertson
The Central Significance of 'Religion' in Social Theory
Frank J Lechner
Parsons and Modernity
Donald N Levine
Simmel and Parsons Reconsidered
Arthur W Frank
From Sick Role to Health Role
Jens Kaalhauge Nielsen
The Political Orientation of Talcott Parsons
Bryan S Turner
Neo-functionalism and the 'New Theoretical Movement'
Bryan S Turner and Roland Robertson
How to Read Parsons
`It is a compendium of thirteen original papers, including some unpublished work by Parson's himself, which goes well beyond providinga coda to his work. The authors reopen a new postfunctionalist phase in which Parsons is put into perspective as new emendations are constructed on the basis provided by his work...For those interested in sociocultural dimensions of the group process and the integration of group members outside society, the book provides considerable food for thought' - Group Analysis