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Erich Fromm
(1988)
This descriptive summary of sociological theories is a text, designed primarily for use in undergraduate sociology courses, and presented in 11 Chpts, with an author's Preface. Emphases are on the interplay between theory and methodology and the range of theories of social structure. Chpt (1) What Is Sociological Theory? – defines six different meanings of theory, explains their diverse characteristics, and differentiates between speculative vs grounded and macro vs micro types of theory; also examined are theoretical models and theoretical functions. (2) Theory and Sociological Inquiry – describes the lasting conflict between theory and empiricism, the reciprocal interplay between theory and research, and emphasizes the value of middle-range theories in encouraging research. (3) System Theory – discusses mechanistic, organismic, and structural models of systems theory and their use in research, explaining the contributions of Vilifredo Pareto, Claude Levi-Strauss, Pitirim A. Sorokin, and others; it presents Talcott Parsons's typology of systems, ie, social, cultural, personality, and behavioral. (4) Functionalism – offers historical and critical perspectives on functionalism, and summarizes Robert K. Merton's postulates in functional analysis, eg, of the functional unity of society and of the indispensibility of established patterns. (5) Conflict Theory – identifies the competitive-economic and political power traditions, the theories of Karl Marx, Ralf Dahrendorf, and C. Wright Mills, the contributions of the Frankfurt school to critical theory, and radical positions. (6) Exchange Theory – relates the origins of exchange theory in anthropology, economics, and psychology, and points to the essential roles of James Frazer, Bronislaw Malinowski, Marcel Mauss, and Claude Levi-Strauss; the behavioral approach of George Homans and Peter Blau's structural analysis of social exchange are compared, and norms of justice and reciprocity are illustrated. (7) Theories of Anomie and Alienation – uses classic texts, eg, Emile Durkheim's Suicide and Merton's Social Structure and Anomie to explore the relation between anomie and class structure, and examines theories of alienation of Karl Marx, Erich FROMM, Richard Schact, and others. (8) Symbolic Interactionism – defines interaction in relation to the individual and society, and summarizes the part played by Charles Horton Cooley in focusing theoretical attention on the individual and the primary group; basic notions in George Herbert Mead's social psychology are defined, and interactionist perspectives of Herbert Blumer, Manfred Kuhn, and Erving Goffman are summarized. (9) John H. Morgan – Phenomenological Sociology – characterizes the interpretive function of phenomenology and ethnomethodology, which are focused on the individual social actor's perspective. The original views of Edmund Husserl and Karl Mannheim, later synthesized by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann and others in a sociology of knowledge, are explained. (10) Continuing Debate on Behaviorism, Structuralism and Quantitativism – describes four general categories of theories of the individual's relationship with society, ie, nominalism, interactionism, neo-nominalism, and realism. Also included are attempts to integrate psychological and structural views, eg, by Alex Inkeles; neopositivism, and the reaction against its exclusive use in social analysis, are characterized. (11) Two Macro Theoretical Approaches – traces the origins and development of ecological and evolutionary views of society. The pioneering work of the Chicago school in articulating ecological/environmental views is noted. Within a typology of evolutionary theories, the ideas of Herbert Spencer, Lewis Henry Morgan, Emile Durkheim, Oswald Spengler, Pitirim Sorokin, and others are elaborated. 3 Tables, 6 Figures, Notes. (Copyright 1984, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.)
The Right Decision
(1961)
This dissertation investigates the relationship between the utopian idea of a normative totality and the genesis of modern totalitarianism in the exile novels Pardon wird nicht gegeben. Amazonas-trilogy, and November 1918 by Alfred Doblin (written between 1934 and 1937). – Chapter 1 analyses first the resurgence of narrative authority in the novel Pardon wird nicht gegeben as a function of Doblin's Marxist insight into economic determinism and as his literary contribution to the popular front of German emigres in the Paris of the 1930's. The novel describes the social rise and downfall of a proletarian whose sadomasochistic predisposition resembles the authoritarian character analysed by Erich FROMM in his psychoanalytic interpretation of Nationalsocialism. The protagonist's desire for social integration results in the destruction of his individuality through politically totalitarian groups. – Chapter 2 analyses the development of the concept of normative totality in Doblin's theory of the novel. – Chapter 3 shows how in Doblin's Amazonas-trilogy several historical attempts to realize a peaceful co-existence between European conquerors and their >Other< results in the brutal repression of the Native Indians. The desire of modern, rational, and technological man for a transcendental >home< is unmasked as the source also for the false totalitarian promises of salvation in our century. Doblin interprets Nationalsocialism as the repetition of earlier ecstasies of self-destruction, which in their turn were desperate responses to the loss of a holistic medieval order. – Chapter 4 follows the traces of Doblin's conversion to Catholicism in the narrative structure and content of November 1918. It elucidated the dialectics of totality totalitarianism by showing how Doblin's demand for a mystically motivated retreat from history results in the involuntary affirmation of those power structures whose inhuman face Doblins portrays in more than thousand pages. – The dissertation is framed by an introduction and a conclusion both of which deal with the problem of the relevance of his exile novels for our own time.