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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Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Macroscopic Action On Amitai Etzionis Contribution to Social Theory | 13 |
The Cultural Dimensions of The Active Society | 23 |
The Cybernetic Institutionalist | 53 |
The Constitution of ActivityEtzionis Foundation of Social Theory in Collective Action and Collective Actors | 71 |
The Actively Drifting Society | 89 |
Communitarianism The Highest State of Progressivism The Active Society Revisited | 117 |
The Teamwork of Sisyphus PostFordist Capitalism Corporate Culture and Etzionis Active Society | 137 |
The Eagle and the Worm The Active Society from a Community Organizers Perspective | 209 |
Searching for Active Citizenship | 223 |
Courting Megalogues Judicial Power in the Active Society | 247 |
Community Formation Gender Issues and the Evolution of International Law A Perspective on Amitai Etzionis The Active Society | 261 |
Lighting Damp Logs Social Movements Liberal Democracy and the Politics of Transformation | 285 |
From the Active Society to the Good Society The Second Sailing of Amitai Etzioni | 311 |
The Active Society Revisited A Response | 333 |
Contributors | 349 |
Membership and Belonging Etzionis Authenticity and the Existential Challenges of Liberalism | 167 |
Swing Low Sweet Chariot Transformation and Religious Tradition | 193 |
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Common terms and phrases
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 Constitution 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 Hans Joas Human Rights Ibid ideology important inauthenticity individual institutions intellectuals International Criminal Court issues Jean-Paul Akayesu knowledge liberal liberal democracy 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 religion 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