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Perspectives Section News N ewsletter Fe atures •Award Competitions •Inter mediate Level Social For m ations •Call for Papers •Tow ard a Theory of Global Society? •Inter n ational T heory Consortium •Revisiting Scientific Sociology THE ASA January 2002r THEORY SECTION NEWSLETTER Perspectives VOLUME 25, NUMBER 1r Section Officers Can There Be A Global Society? CHAIR Amitai Etzioni, The George Washington University Gary Alan Fine heory develops in many ways, including through quests for internal consistency, CHAIR-ELECT codification, and formalization. Another way it develops is in response to Linda D. Molm T challenging questions posed by public leaders, policy makers, and the community at large, in which these people at least implicitly look to macrosociology PAST CHAIR for guidance (Coleman, Etzioni and Porter 1970; Lehman 1977) . Douglas Heckathorn One such set of questions arises out of the recent increased interest in the development SECRETARY-TREASURER of a “global civil society.” Many factors are said to have propelled such a development Murray Webster since 1990, such as the end of the Cold War, globalization, rapid communication technologies, the rise of English as a de facto lingua franca, thousands of new inter- COUNCIL national nongovernmental organizations, a handful of transnational social movements, Robert J. Antonio new supranational institutions (e.g., the proposed International Criminal Court and Jorge Arditi the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), and an increase in the Edward J. Lawler number and power of multinational corporations. Cecilia L. Ridgeway The same factors are said to diminish the capacities of national governments (especially Robin Stryker all that are not superpowers) to manage their societal affairs, as well as to be behind Robin Wagner-Pacifici See GLOBAL on page 2 SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY EDITOR Jonathan Turner What Has Happened to Scientific PERSPECTIVES EDITORS Sociology? J. David Knottnerus & Jonathan H. Turner, University of California-Riverside Jean Van Delinder hen I was in graduate school in the late 1960s, there was little debate about the prospects for scientific sociology. Most faculty and students were Submit news and commentary to: Wcommitted to the epistemology of science. Indeed, many students seemed concerned—in my view over-concerned—with the nature of scientific explanation. J. David Knottnerus and My fellow students had endless philosophical discussions about how to construct Jean Van Delinder sociological explanations. Obviously, others were having the same conversation because Department of Sociology by the mid 1970s, a host of “theory construction” texts had been produced. Most CLB 006 of these texts examined theoretical methods rather than substance, and as a result Oklahoma State University they were boring and not very useful, for a simple reason: Theories are insights into Stillwater, OK 74078-4062 how the world operates; and just how they are stated is less important than the (see inside for phone, fax, & e-mail) See SCIENTIFIC on page 4 Page 2 Perspectives GLOBAL from page 1 society in the long run able to countervail sometimes referred to as “governance centrifugal forces that exist in all social without government,” (See, for instance, an increase in transnational problems, in- groupings, especially large and complex Rosenau and Czempiel 1992; Young cluding organized crime, trafficking in ones. 1999; Mathews 1997; Václav Havel 1999) human beings, and environmental chal- do not conceptualize a global society lenges. Hence the interest in finding new I will use the definition just outlined for without government, but (a) view the glo- (post-national) ways of dealing with the the rest of the discussion, although, of bal society as relying to a significant extent problems. course, the matter of what is the appro- on transnational nonstate actors (e.g., priate definition of society stands and the many thousands of NGOs and social The challenge for sociological (and com- answer one’s theory provides will affect movements) to regulate itself, and (b) pro- munitarian) theory, as I see it, starts with all the deliberations that follow and many ject that although national states and in- the question: Can there be a global society? others. tergovernmental international organiza- Before this question can be addressed, it tions will play a role, a considerable part is necessary to specify what a society is. Using, then, the three conditions as the of their current role will be absorbed by There is no agreed upon definition of so- criteria, whether or not a global society is smaller societal entities. Václav Havel ciety. Some argue that the very concept is beginning to develop (obviously it is not (1999) writes, “the state...can go in only a fiction (Bentham 1935), that all there is in place) is a matter for empirical study. two directions: downward or upward. are individuals and the transactions and Downward applies to the various organs contracts they make. Others hold that so- However, a corollary theoretical question and structures of civil society to which cieties are arenas in which classes clash, remains: must societies in general, and a the state should gradually transfer many and that the very term seeks to falsely im- global one in particular, be ensconced in of the tasks it now performs itself. Up- pose unity where none exists nor should a state? The idea that the state may wither ward applies to various regional, trans- exist. Still others maintain that society is a away is an old one, but has been put by national or global communities or organi- fruitful concept but view it as reflecting a Marx at the “end of history,” and is con- zations.” These theories also (c) point to pattern of distribution of powers (among sidered by many as utopian–that is, socio- the rise of global norms, some shared elites and followers) and assets. Finally, logically untenable. However, the idea has values, and world public opinion not only there are those who add the sharing of a received new currency recently with the as societal factors but also as leading to consensus on core values (this presumes rise of new technological developments. new global laws that are enforced by na- that a stable society must be ensconced in They have made possible the theoretical tional governments and to some extent a state). conception of a society (and within it, by new or developing international courts. communities and organizations, corpora- But all agree that a global state (or world I tried to show elsewhere, on the basis tions included) in which networks (of government) is neither possible nor de- of four case studies, that for a society to equals) replace hierarchies; information— sired. For instance, Lawrence Lessig be sustainable, three conditions must be power; and self-regulation—government (1999) states without hesitation that world met: it must have control of the means through the state (Meyer, Boli, Thomas, government is an “impossibility.” of violence that exceeds that of subunits; and Ramirez 1997). This conception has it must have a significant capacity to real- been held to apply particularly to cyber- The challenge for sociological theory is locate economic goods; and it must com- space (Barlow 1996), in which a growing whether one can conceptualize a stable mand loyalty in key, relevant matters that proportion of social transactions is pro- society not ensconced in a state. Histori- trumps commitment to subgroups or ex- jected to take place. cally, much has been made of the role of ternal ones (Etzioni 2001). I tried to show (domestic) civil society in protecting citi- that only if these conditions are met is a More moderate and widely held theories, zens from excessive intrusion by the state, and ensuring that the state will not weaken Perspectives is the newsletter of the Theory Section of the American Sociological communities, voluntary associations and Association. It is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October. The families by preempting their functions. In deadline for all submissions is the fifth day of the month before publication. short, civil society has been viewed largely We welcome news and commentary as well as announcements about confer- as a counterweight to a potentially over- ences, journal information, calls for papers, position openings, and any other powering state. information of interest to section members. Less has been made in recent work (unlike Send submissions to: J. David Knottnerus and Jean Van Delinder, Department of the work of earlier social philosophers) Sociology, CLB 006, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078-4062; fax of the benefits that civil society derives (405) 744-5780; phone (405) 744-6106 (Knottnerus) or (405) 744-4613 (Van Delinder); e-mail [email protected] or [email protected] See GLOBAL on page 6 Perspectives Page 3 Looking in the Middle: Between the Micro and the Macro Levels of the Graduate Social Worlds Student Paper Award D. Paul Johnson, Texas Tech University Competition great deal of emphasis in sociological theory in recent years has involved efforts to integrate different levels of analysis, particularly the micro level of The ASA Section on the History of A face-to-face relations and the macro level of the overall society. In some ways Sociology invites you (or your stu- the difference parallels the distinction between agency and structure, although the two dents) to submit a scholarly paper for dichotomies are conceptually distinct. Even so, the concept of agency seems to focus its Graduate Student Paper Award. on micro-level social worlds. Similarly, analyses that focus on structure tend to move The deadline for receipt of the paper beyond local situations toward the larger social world, including the overall society – is February 15, 2002. or even beyond in a global perspective. Despite differences in starting points and primary focus, much important theoretical work is relevant to both levels (and in Students who will be enrolled (full or between), as well as to the analysis of “duality” in which both agency and structure are part-time) in a graduate sociology pro- involved with neither assumed to be primary in an ontological sense.
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