The Active Society RevisitedWilson C. McWilliams Rowman & Littlefield, 2006 - 352 pages The Active Society, published in 1968, is the most ambitious book in Amitai Etzioni's remarkable career. It is sociology in the grand tradition, with at least one foot outside its own time. In it, Etzioni confronts the great modern irony-- that setting out to become the masters of nature, humans become mastered by their own instruments-- championing the sense of agency and aiming to demonstrate that humanity can direct its own creations, or at least, that societies can aspire to a greater measure of authentic self-government. In this new collection of essays, Wilson Carey McWilliams brings together scholars in a range of disciplines to analyze the significance and shortcomings of this important work. They comment on the importance of Etzioni's contributions, the magnitude of his achievement, and the extent to which The Active Society speaks to contemporary social and political life. |
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Page 30
... means and goals . But by itself this one symbolic attribute cannot make an actor into an agent . Symbolic bundles are reality - testing when they help actors to enrich their knowledge so as to bring it into greater accord with ...
... means and goals . But by itself this one symbolic attribute cannot make an actor into an agent . Symbolic bundles are reality - testing when they help actors to enrich their knowledge so as to bring it into greater accord with ...
Page 96
... means by which the goals should be obtained , or even easy translation into what it means to meet the goals . In classical organizational theory , a common way to conceptualize goals was to stipulate that an organization has an ...
... means by which the goals should be obtained , or even easy translation into what it means to meet the goals . In classical organizational theory , a common way to conceptualize goals was to stipulate that an organization has an ...
Page 99
... means to organizational isomorphism.46 The formal prohibition against restricting anyone's opportunity becomes the means because the " goal " is nothing other than equal op- portunity . For those who take equality to mean equality of ...
... means to organizational isomorphism.46 The formal prohibition against restricting anyone's opportunity becomes the means because the " goal " is nothing other than equal op- portunity . For those who take equality to mean equality of ...
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Cultural Dimensions of The Active Society | 23 |
The Cybernetic Institutionalist | 53 |
Copyright | |
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abolitionist action Active Society agency agency-enhancing alienation Amerco American Amitai Etzioni analysis argues authentic basic bureaucracies citizens civil society coalitions collective actors commitment communitarian complex concept conflict consensus constitutional contemporary corporate Court critical culture as practice cybernetic decision-making decisions democracy democratic discourses elites empirical ethical gain Etzioni's theory example forms Free Press futurology Geneva Conventions goals groups Hannah Arendt Human Rights Human Rights Watch Ibid ideology important inauthenticity individual institutions intellectuals International Criminal Court issues Jean-Paul Akayesu knowledge liberal liberal democratic malleable means mobilization modern moral MoveOn MoveOn.org needs normative organizational organizations participation post-capitalist post-Fordist post-modern potential problem produce rape reality-testing responsive Review role Selznick sense sexual violence social and political social movements social structures Sociology suffragists symbolic bundles Theory of Societal tion tive transformation United University Press values women York