Emerald Group Publishing Limited Reconstructing Social Theory, History and Practice: 35 (Current Perspectives in Social Theory, 35)

With regard to developments in social theory, the past 30 years can be characterized as an Age of Deconstruction. Inspired by post-structuralism, postmodernism, critical theory, and science studies, as well as combinations of related approaches, theorists have endeavored to shatter historical meta-narratives and struggled to include previously excluded standpoints in social thought. This important trend has informed our understanding of the role of discourse, difference and expertise in determining relations of power and inequality. This volume focusses on Reconstruction , dedicated to taking account of and interrogating the possibility of picking up the pieces. The papers were presented at the 2015 International Social Theory Consortium (ISTC). It considers questions such as, are there limits to the deconstruction project, and have these limits been reached? What are the possibilities for the reconstruction of narratives of long-term historical change? Is it possible to include and integrate the insights and contribution of various critiques of knowledge, while at the same time developing new forms of knowledge? Review Philosophy, political science, and sociology scholars from the US, UK, and Australia present nine essays mostly based on papers presented at the annual conference of the International Social Theory Consortium in the UK in June 2015. They address the need for reconstruction after a long period of deconstruction in social theory, to take account of and examine the possibility of reassembling and rebuilding what was deconstructed. They consider reconstruction in social theory, history, and practice, discussing “the True, the Good, and the Beautiful” in European social thought; Axel Honneth's work on Hegel's theory of normative reconstruction; the dichotomy between aporia and euphoria; Erving Goffman's work; Weber's social theory as a basis for understanding suffering, in addition to the work of Emmanuel Levinas; Rowan Williams, Hans-George Gadamer, and Jürgen Habermas and religion; the intellectual and political origins of the Swedish, egalitarian, democratic welfare-state ideology in the 1930s; and the political philosophy of Europe and Habermas' model of reconstruction. -- Annotation ©2017 ― (protoview.com) About the Author Harry F. Dahms is Associate Professor of Sociology at Florida State University.