New Horizons in Sociological Theory and Research, The Frontiers of Sociology at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century (Innbundet (stive permer))

This work tackles the issue of the tasks that confront sociology in the third millennium. It examines the sociological interpretations of the worldwide revolution which - amid unprecedented scientific and technological progress and the globalization of markets - has generated new inequalities, poverty, structural unemployment and mass conditionings. A number of sociologists (including Boudon, Beck and Eisenstadt) offer interpretations of changes in world society, while outlining the frontiers of sociological research for the 21st century. The contributions prompt reflection on the structure and organization of sociological research and aim to revitalize sociological enquiry by conducting original and stimulating analysis of theoretical and methodological issues.

Theory and research - new horizons: sociology between scientism and aestheticism, or can sociology be positivist today?; post-classical sociology or the twilight of sociology?; the challenge of multiple modernitites; modern societies as knowledge societies; freedom versus control in postmodern society - a relational approach. The new realities of today - cosmopolitan society, globalization, ethnicity, nationality, immigration: the cosmopolitan society and its enemies; sociology after the revolution in Eastern Europe - can it survive?; globalization and peripheral identity; "mind" and collective consciousness; beyond national and post-national models - transnational spaces and immigrant integration. The new frontiers of sociology: some challenges for sociology in the new era; toward a science of global marginality; new horizons in religious evolution; sociology in the 21st century - a discipline at the crossroads between senility or regeneration; the idea of alternative discourses.