David L. Harvey

Agency and Community: A Critical Realist Paradigm

This essay develops a middle range sociological research paradigm based on the critical realist philosophy of Roy Bhaskar. It begins with an account of Critical Realism and its evolution over the last three decades. It then expands upon Bhaskars Transformational Model of Social Activity (TMSA), moving in a step-by-step fashion from the philosophical conceptions of Critical Realism to a concrete sociological rendering of the TMSA itself. In making the transition from the philosophically abstract to the socially concrete, the author uses complexity theory and the works of Georg Simmel to illustrate the dialectical process through which human agency and community mutually constitute and reproduce one another.

The Culture of Poverty: An Ideological Analysis:

For three decades Oscar Lewiss subculture of poverty concept has been misinterpreted as a theory bent on blaming the victims of poverty for their poverty. This essay corrects this misunderstanding. Using a sociology of knowledge approach, it explores the historical origins of this misreading and shows how current poverty scholarship replicates this erroneous interpretation of Lewiss work. An attempt is made to remedy this situation by arguing that Lewiss subculture of poverty idea, far from being a poor-bashing, ideological ploy, is firmly grounded in a Marxist critique of capital and its productive contradictions. As such, Lewiss work is a celebration of the resilience and resourcefulness of the poor, not a denigration of the lower class and the cultural defenses they erect against povertys everyday uncertainty.

The evolution of dissipative social systems

Social evolution is one of the master ideas of modem social science. For two hundred years the various phases of its development have served as benchmarks for measuring the progress of Western science. Similarly much of the history of the modem social sciences can be charted by the twists and turns that have marked the history of social evolutionary theory. In fact, the idea of social evolution was so much the vogue in the last century that thinkers with radically divergent ideological conceptions of humanity and society readily incorporated it into their theories. Consider the following: G. W. F. Hegel and Auguste Comte; Karl Marx and Charles Darwin, Frederick Engels and Herbert Spencer; William Graham Sumner and Lester Frank Ward; and, fmally, Andrew Carnegie and Jack London. Despite the political and theoretical differences among these individuals, each was drawn to the idea of social evolution and each fitted it into his respective research programs. Though intellectual historians usually consider the last half of the nineteenth century as “Darwin’s Century,” the 20th century has also been preoccupied with the idea of evolution. The recent cross-overs between the biological and sociological uses of evolutionary theory is, in fact, a halhnark of fm de si6cle intellectual life. Advances in the physical and biological sciences have stimulated a renewed interest in grand theories of social change among social scientists. This is not to say evolutionary theory has not suffered reversals or periods of neglect, for it has. Evolutionary thought in the social sciences was eclipsed during the middle half of this century by synchronic and ahistorical modes of social analysis. At one point the idea of social evolution seemed to have been ceded to anthropologists and antiquarians for safe keeping, as sociologists and political scientists turned en masse to a strangely ahistorical Cold War science. We can get an idea of the vicissitudes to which the idea of social evolution was subjected at mid-century by examining the works of Talcott Parsons, a social theorist who epitomized Cold War social science. Parsons launched his illustrious career in the late

Paradigms of poverty: A critical assessment of contemporary perspectives

What these trends mean will be hotly debated for some time to come. Neo-conservatives have thus far adopted Charles Murrays (1984) position, charging that the welfare system by destroying individual incentive is re? sponsible for povertys persistence. In a break with such neo-conservative dogma, Kevin Phillips in The Politics of Rich and Poor (1990) has tried to revive Nixonian cloth coat populism and thereby wrest control of Republican Party politics from Reaganite parvenus. Much to the horror of neo-conservatives, he has introduced the specter of class conflict and class-based politics into the poverty debate. Finally, a renewed welfare agenda is beginning to take shape, as liberal social scientists increasingly focus on ways to reform welfare and extend basic social entitlements for the poor. Wilsons (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the

The Practical Contradictions of Marxism

For more than a century proletarian socialism privileged the working class and its welfare, while simultaneously reaching out to the exploited and oppressed of all races and creeds.’ This is no longer the case. The privileging of working class interests is now challenged from within the ranks of proletarian socialism itself. For a generation many of the left’s most gifted spokespeople have urged the abandonment of its traditional commitments in favor of a &dquo;decentered alliance&dquo; of nar-

Globalization and deindustrialization: A city Abandoned

It is fitting that a conference with the theme Globalization and the New World Order should open its deliberations with a consideration of Steven Dandaneaus A Town Abandoned (1996). There are several reasons why this is so. First, A Town Abandoned is exemplary of the type of soci ology the Institute for the Analysis of Contemporary Society fosters. The work is grounded in the lived experience of a community and the historical struggles that have shaped it. Specifically, A Town Abandoned employs criti cal theory to understand the process of dependent deindustrialization that is laying waste to Flint, Michigan and Americas industrial heartland. Moreover, Dandaneaus critique is self-consciously grounded in the socio logical imagination of C. Wright Mills. Indeed, for Dandaneau: ... critique is situated, reflexive, and communicative; the sociological imagination is its self consciousness. C. Wright Mills triad of history, biography, and social struc ture (what he called coordinate points), form a constellation of the human imagi nation that is oriented to thinking the life of the individual back into the history and society that appear alien to the individual. (Dandaneau, 1996; 95) It is no exaggeration, in fact, to say that Millss triad of coordinate points?biography, history and social structure?form the ontological foundation of Dandaneaus critical method. What is remarkable about Dandaneaus handling of the critical method is his ability to use a sophisticated rendering of critical theory to analyze the cultural dimensions of Flints crisis without falling victim to the her meneutic sin of doing critique for the pure sake of critique. His analysis of Flints response to industrial collapse and corporate abandonment does

The limits of synthesis: Some comments on Habermas' recent sociological writings

There is a growing schism in the ranks of critical theory. The division has become serious enough that we now find it necessary to dis? tinguish between the classical critical theory of the Frankfurt School and those revisions of critical thought which presently abound in the so? cial sciences. This revisionism is characterized by its rejection of the clas? sical paradigms commitment to the premises of Western Marxism. It replaces the materialism and dialectical method of classical critical theory with a variety of theoretical alternatives such as language theory, an upgraded form of hermeneutic interpretation, or a recrudescent neo functionalism. In turning to these idealist conceptions this revisionism seems bent on constructing a sociological parody of that critical criticism which Marx and Engels dispatched in The German Ideology (1976; 23-31) more than a century ago. This paper discusses this revisionist trend as it has developed in the works of J?rgen Habermas. It begins by first tracing Habermas theoreti? cal Odyssey from its origins in Western Marxism, to its current terminus in a neo-functionalist systems theory. Once having charted this trek, we will then critically evaluate the adequacy of the political economy that grounds Habermas mature sociological theory. Finally, on the basis of that critique, we will take up the central theme of this paper: a con? sideration of the synthetic limits of Habermas systems theory and the possibilities which recent advances in the theory of dissipative systems offer critical theory.

Comments on “The Dialectics of Legitimation and Counternorms”

Della Fave (1986) uses traditional social psychology and critical theory (Horkheimer, 1972; Adorno, 1973a; 1973b; Marcuse, 1960) to study the dialectics of legitimation and delegitimation. In an earlier effort, The Meek Shall Not Inherit the Earth: Self-Evaluation and the Legitimacy of Stratification (1980), Professor Della Fave developed a social psychological model of legitimation that he called self-evaluation theory. He now rounds out that earlier work with a macro-sociological analysis of delegitimation. Taken together, both works constitute a single project. Because of this logical intertwining, before we can comment on the present work, we must first explore the self-evaluation model developed in the 1980 article. We will ask two questions of that model: (1) Can self-evaluation theory fully explain the processes of conflict that give rise to legitimation crises? (2) Is self-evaluation theorys use of Meads generalized other concept valid? After addressing these questions, we will turn to the issues raised in this article. The third point of comment will examine the dialectical model employed by the author and compare it to critical theorys dialectical method. Finally, we will ask if self-evaluation theory is capable of grasping the intra subjective moment of delegitimation and, more generally, we will question the plausibility of synthesizing cognitive consistency theory and critical theorys negative dialectic.

John Forrester. Language and the Origins of Psychoanalysis. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.

ulations of policymakers’ and providers’ efforts combined to provide teenagers access to the information and service required to manage their fertility free and in confidence without parental consent on a consistently articulated basis. Farmville did not. The result was substantial differences in the number of unwanted pregnancies in Farmville compared with Southern City. Observed differences were explained by the notions of service gaps and value gaps. Service gaps refer to extent of unmet need or the difference between teenage requirements to eliminate unwanted pregnancies and service provided by the communities in which they live. Value gaps refer to differences between teenage attitudes and expectations and those of adult influentials. Central to the differences between adults and youth were those of confidentiality and money. Adult policymakers in particular were reluctant to advocate elimination of parental control over their children and to provide state funds for total support of teenage fertility management that such confidentiality implies. Even where families can support the cost of service, teenagers themselves have limited access to funds. This monograph is recommended reading for those interested in social policy, organization of health services, or adoles-