Profiles and Critiques in Social Theory

251 Pages·1982·23.174 MB·English

by  Anthony Giddens (auth.)

CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORY
General Editor: ANTHONY GIDDENS
This series aims to create a forum for debate between different
theoretical and philosophical traditions in the social sciences. As
weH as covering broad schools of thought, the series will also
concentrate upon the work of particular thinkers whose ideas have
had a major impact on social science (these books appear under the
sub-se ries title of 'Theoretical Traditions in the Social Sciences').
The s«ries is not limited to abstract theoretical discussion - it will
also include more substantive works on contemporary capitalism,
the state, politics and other subject areas.
Published titles
Tony Bilton, Kevin Bonnett, Philip Iones, Ken Sheard, Michelle Stanworth and
Andrew Webster, Introductory Sociology
Simon Clarke, Marx, Marginalism and Modern Sociology
Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method (ed. Steven Lukes, trans. W. D.
Halls)
Anthony Giddens, A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism
Anthony Giddens, Central Problems in Social Theory
Anthony Giddens, Profiles and Critiques in Social Theory
Anthony Giddens and David Held (eds), Classes, Power and Conflict
Ali Rattansi, Marx and the Division of Labour
Gerry Rose, Deciphering Sociological Research
Steve Taylor, Durkheim and the Study of Suicide
lohn B. Thompson and David Held (eds), Habermas: Critical Debates
lohn Urry, The Anatomy ofCapitalist Societies
Forthcoming titles
Martin Albrow, Weber and the Construction of Social Theory
Clive Ashworth, Chris Dandeker and Terry lohnson, Theoretical Sociology
David Brown and Michael Harrison, Industrial Sociology
Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labourin Society (trans. W. D. Halls)
Boris Frankei, Beyond the State
Anthony Giddens, Between Capitalism and Socialism
David Held, Bureaucracy, Democracy and Socialism
Geoffrey Ingham, Capitalism Divided
lorge Larrain, Marxism and Ideology
Gaus Offe, Structural Problems of the Capitalist State
lohn Scott, The Upper Classes: Property and Privilege in Britain
Michelle Stanworth, Gender and Class
lohn B. Thompson, Language and Ideology
CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORY
General Editor: ANTHONY GIDDENS
Theoretical Traditions in the Social Sciences
This new series introduces the work of major figures in social
science to students beyond their immediate specialisms.
Published titles
Barry Barnes. T. S. Kuhn and Social Science
lulian Roberts. Walter Benjamin
Forthcoming titles
Ted Benton, Althusser and the Althusserians
David Bloor, Wittgenstein and Sodal Seien ce
Chris Bryant, Positivism in Social Theory
lohn Forrester, Jacques Lacan
lohn Heritage, Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology
Athar H ussain, Foueault
Bob lessop, Nicos Poulantzas
lames Schmidt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Social Theory
Dennis Smith, Barrington Moore: Violence. Morality and Political Change
Robin Williams, Erving Goffman
Profiles and Critiques in
Social Theory
Anthony Giddens
Fellow o[ King's College, Cambridge
Chapter 2 contributed by Fred Dallmayr
M
Chapters 1, 3-7, 9-16 © Anthony Giddens 1982
Chapter 2 © Fred Dallmayr 1982
Chapter 8 © The Macmillan Press Ltd 1982
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1982978-0-333-32901-6
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, without permission.
First published 1982 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-32902-3 ISBN 978-1-349-86056-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-86056-2
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Contents
Preface vii
Sources x
1 Hermeneutics and Social Theory 1
Hermeneutics, positivism, sodal theory 4
The theory of structuration 8
The double hermeneutic 11
ConcJusion 14
2 The Theory ofStructuration: a Critique (by Fred Dallmayr) 18
Response to Dallmayr (by Anthony Giddens) 26
Rejoinder to Giddens (by Fred Dallmayr) 27
3 Action, Structure, Power 28
Approaches to the theory of action 28
Concepts of structure 32
The duality of structure 36
4 Classical Sodal Theory and the Origins ofModern Sociology 40
Some myths identified 40
The problem of order 43
The myth of conservatism 47
The myth of schi sm 51
Some implications 53
The theory of industrial society 54
The epistemological status of social theory 60
5 The High Priest of Positivism: Auguste Comte 68
vi Contents
6 Schutz and Parsons: Problems of Meaning and Subjectivity 76
7 Habermas's Sodal and Political Theory 82
8 Labour and Interaction 100
9 Durkheim, Sodalism and Marxism 117
Critical comments 120
The state: Durkheim and Marx 122
State power and citizenship 127
10 Literature and Society: Raymond Williams 133
11 The Improbable Guru: Re-Reading Marcuse 144
Marcuse's analysis: its Jeading themes 145
Some substantive comments 151
Technology, freedom, politics 156
12 Class Division, Class Contlict and Citizenship Rights 164
13 Classes, Capitalism and the State 181
14 Power, the Dialectic of Control and Class Structuration 197
Weber: bureaucracy and capitalism 200
Braverman: dass domination and capitalism 205
Condusion: agency and alienation 212
15 From Mark to Nietzsehe? Neo-Conservatism, Foucault,
and Problems in Contemporary Political Theory 215
Index 231
Preface
The essays which comprise this book all date from the past five
years. As with my previous collection of papers, Studies in Social
and Political Theory (1977), the articles incIuded here were written
against the backdrop of a number of larger works.! This book con
tinues and amplifies some of the main arguments in those works. At
the same time, since most of the discussions contained herein con
cern specific thinkers or schools of thought, my own views are
defined polemically in relation to those of others. The book thus has
an overall unity that might otherwise appear to be be lied by the
diverse range of its contents.
The first and third essays provide concise discussions of some of
the themes analysed in greater detail in the range of writings I have
just referred to. Together with Fred Dallmayr's critique of my
views, plus the dialogue between us which folIows, I hope that these
help to cIarify my arguments in relation to those themes. In analys
ing the impact of hermeneutics upon social theory, I endeavour to
demonstrate that, while problems of 'interpretation' are fundamen
tal to the social sciences, they certainly do not exhaust their con
cerns. I advocate what I call, for want of a more elegant phrase, a
'hermeneutically informed social theory'. This implies integrating
hermeneutics within a broader approach to social theory, that
acknowledges the basic importance of the analysis of long-term
institutional change, power and conflict - matters which have rarely
been confronted within the hermeneutic tradition. In this context I
indicate the main elements of the theory of structuration, the me ans
whereby I want to provide the groundwork for approaching these
issues.
Dallmayr's commentary, written as a response to the first articIe
incIuded here, 'Hermeneutics and social theory', offers an acute
viii Preface
yet sympathetic diagnosis of possible shortcomings in my account of
thc notion of structuration, and other concepts connected with it.
The theory of structuration has to be assessed in some substantial
part in terms of how far it helps illuminate empirical issues in the
social sciences. In this respect it is encouraging that the ideas
involved have been taken up in a variety of contexts.2 On a more
abstract level, there seems to be a strong convergence between my
standpoint and those worked out largely independently by other
authors.3
As the fourth essay, 'Classical social theory and the origins of
modern sociology', makes plain, in my writings I have consistently
been interested in three overlapping areas of interest. One is that of
metatheoretical reflection, of the kind represented in the opening
essays. But such reflection, I think, has to be related to the analysis
of the trajectories of development of the 'advanced societies',
increasingly incorporated within a world system; and to the critical
examination of 'classical social theory' , which still today remains the
basis of a great deal of contemporary social thought. These three
concerns are unified in so far as each bears upon a single overall
preoccupation - with the distinctive features of late eighteenth-and
nineteenth-century European thought, confronted with the vast
social changes that have transformed the world in the twentieth cen
tury.
'Classical social theory and the origins of modern sociology' thus
serves as a bridge between the opening articles and those which
compose the rest of the book. These can be divided into two broad
sections. One is spanned by my discussions of Comte and Durk
heim. Comte coined the terms 'positivism' and 'sociology', and
incorporated these into an encyclopedic account of the develop
ment of natural and social science. His influence over Durkheim
was considerable, although of course Durkheim distanced himself
from some aspects of Comte's views. However, in the articles
included here, I concentrate primarily on Comte's methodological
ideas, while my analysis of Durkheim is focused more on the politi
cal implications of Durkheim's thought.4 Between these two essays
come critical discussions of more recent contributions to social
theory. Abrief account of some newly published interchanges
between Schutz and Parsons is followed by two more substantive
critical commentaries on Habermas.
The essay on Durkheim makes a transition to the third section of
the book. The articles included here also take the form of 'profiles
Preface IX
and critiques' of the works of various authors and traditions of
thought, but have a more strongly defined political orientation.
Some of the issues I discuss in relation to Durkheim are raised
again, from various angles, in most ofthe essays wh ich follow. Such
issues indude particularly problems of the modern state, power,
and violence, in the context of transformations in dass structure.
Marxist thought, in its numerous contemporary versions, is inevit
ably directly involved with these problems. The work of Raymond
Williams offers one perspective upon Marxism - a perspective
which suggests interesting contrasts with that of Marcuse, the
'improbable guru' of the student movements of a decade or so ago.
Each can in turn profitably be compared with the writings of Marx~s
critics. As I try to indicate in the four conduding essays in the
volume, both Marxism, and socialist thought more generally, stand
in need of radical reconstruction in the current era. I offer objec
tions against the views of those who have trodden a path from Marx
to Nietzsche - induding, in an earlier generation, Max Weber, and,
in more recent years, Foucault. But I think that some of the ques
tions to which these authors draw attention undeniably must be con
fronted in a direct fashion by anyone concerned with social theory
today. In approaching such questions, I dose the cirde, reverting to
ideas introduced in the opening essays in the book.
Cambridge ANTHONY GIDDENS
Oetober 1981
References
1. New Rules of Sociological Method (London: Hutehinson, 1976);
Central Problems in Social Theory (London: Macmillan, 1979); A
Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism (London: Macmil
Ian, 1981).
2. See, for example, the very interesting discussion by Allan Pred,
'Power, everyday practice and the discipline of human geography', in
Space and Time in Geography: Essays Dedieated to T. Hägerstrand
(Lund: Gleerups, 1981), and other recent articIes by the same author;
cf. also Derek Gregory, Social Theory and Spatial Strueture (London:
Macmillan, 1982).
3. See especially Roy Bhaskar, The Possibility of Naturalism (Brighton:
Harvester, 1979), and John B. Thompson, Critical Hermeneutics
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
4. Cf. 'Durkheim's political sociology', in Studies in Social and Political
Theory (London: Hutehinson, 1977).