A History and Theory of the Social Sciences

Peter Wagner - University of Barcelona, Spain

Series:
Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society

September 2001 | 208 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

Divided into two parts, this book examines the train of social theory from the 19th century, through to the `organization of modernity', in relation to ideas of social planning, and as contributors to the `rationalistic revolution' of the `golden age' of capitalism in the 1950s and 60s. Part two examines key concepts in the social sciences. It begins with some of the broadest concepts used by social scientists: choice, decision, action and institution and moves on to examine the `collectivist alternative': the concepts of society, culture and polity, which are often dismissed as untenable by postmodernists today. This is a major contribution to contemporary social theory and provides a host of essential insights into the task of social science today.

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PART ONE: RECONSIDERING THE HISTORY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

As a Philosophical Science Unjustifiable, as an Empirical Science Anything Else but New

Classical Sociology and the First Crisis of Modernity

Time of Politics, and Not of Law

Political Analysis during the First Crisis of Modernity

Adjusting Social Relations

Social Science and the Organization of Modernity

The Mythical Promise of Societal Renewal

Social Science and Reform Coalitions

Out of Step

The Social Sciences in the Second Crisis of Modernity

PART TWO: RETHINKING KEY CONCEPTS OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Choice and Decision-Making

Action and Institution

Culture (with Heidrun Friese)

Society

Polity

Modernity

Peter Wagner´s study is surely very helpful for those who study the interrelations between developments in the society and the historical evolution of social sciences. For all students who search a small volume, Wagner´s study is quite appropriate: Thus, one of the most advantages in this regard is Wagner´s pragmatist approach: to show this central problem by a short and equally well informed book.

All in all: The key concepts of present sociology referred in the second part of the book can be understood better by examining the history of social sciences themselves.

Mr Alexander Pinwinkler

Department of History, University of Salzburg

March 6, 2015

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Good introduction for the social sciences elements of the course. Recommended.

Mr Douglas Watson

Department of History, Univ. of Plymouth

May 29, 2014

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The layout and type-setting is poor. The information is packed too densely into its pages.

Mr Harry Miller

Business School, Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education