On the Internal Dynamics of the Conflict/Violence Process: A Discussion with Randall Collins
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Why study social conflict in the end of 1960s?There were external and internal reasons.In the USA, the growth of the civil rights movement over racial discrimination, and then the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War, were mobilizations that many university students, including myself, took part in.What were the main criticisms you made of « big » theories of stratification?(Marx, Weber, Parsons, Dahrendorf, …) Can we say that you did an interpretation of Weber, Bleft wing^?Here the internal field of sociology was making one of its periodic realignments.In the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, Parsons raised the level of sophistication by arguing that Durkheim formulated the central question, what holds society together, and showed that it could not be done by isolated individuals with purely selfish and material interests.Parsons combined Durkheim's pre-contractual solidarity with Weber's valueorientations of the world religions to make sociology into a theory of society at all levels, from the socialization of the individual (which in the 1950s Parsons was explaining by the socializing effects of the Freudian superego) up to the trajectories of world history.This was an impressive synthesis but other sociologists were showing its flaws.Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills (among others) showed that Weber also said much about conflict and domination; Herbert Blumer protested against omitting the
Source: The American Sociologist
Authors: Jérôme Ferret, Randall Collins
Institutions: Université Toulouse-I-Capitole, University of Pennsylvania
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,372
Funder: Agence Nationale de la Recherche
Award: Exiting violence
OpenAlex ID: W2618684166