Acton, Thomas (2009) Has the cultural studies critique of classical sociology run its course? In: Sociology at the crossroads: 39th world congress of international institute of sociology, 11th - 14th June 2009, University of Yerevan, Armenia. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

There exists a strand within Cultural Studies which proclaims the irrelevance of the dead white men of classical sociology. Turning on its head Parsons’ assertion that Weber had incorporated all that was
worthwhile from Marx, they write as if neo-Marxism had incorporated all that was worthwhile in classical sociology, post- structuralism all that was worthwhile in neo-Marxism, and together they had brought sociology to the point where it is a science ready to forget its founders, or at least to cease to teach them except to specialists in the history of sociology. The two decades after 1989 have seen, therefore the flowering of an almost anti-theoretical, experiental cultural studies challenged only by an aggressively a-political “middle way” which sought to synthesize previously competing sociologies. The writer will suggest that sociologists studying the resistance of oppressed minorities have been forced to re- discover the classical sociologists from whom they ultimately derive their ability to ask effective critical questions about and against the consensual syntheses which merely describe the operations of society and culture; and that the credit crunch may make the relevance of these questions more apparent.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Speech)
Additional Information:	[1] Presentation was delivered at the 39th world congress of the international institute of sociology called 'sociology at the crossroads', in a section entitled 'the relevance of the classics for post-1989-transformations' on Friday 12th June 2009, between 13:30 and 19:00 in room 207 - convener and chair: Sven Eliaeson, Uppsala University.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	cultural studies, classical sociology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Humanities & Social Sciences School of Humanities & Social Sciences > Department of Social, Political & Cultural Studies
Related URLs:	Publisher Organisation
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2016 09:14
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/5314

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