Durkheimian Sociology

This book is designed to bring the analysis of symbolic phenomena more directly into the discourse of sociology. The human studies are in the midst of an explosion of cultural interest. In diverse disciplinary orientations throughout Europe and in literary studies in the United States, semiotics and structuralism-and the poststructuralist movements which have followed in their wake-have fundamentally affected contemporary understandings of social experience and ideas.

Acknowledgements; Introduction: Durkheimian sociology and cultural studies today Jeffrey C. Alexander; Part I. Social Change and Saralization: 1. The sacred and the French Revolution Lynn Hunt; 2. From Durkheim to Managua: revolutions as religious revivals Edward A. Tiryakian; 3. The Liminal fight: mass strikes as ritual and interpretation Eric W. Rothenbuhler; Part II. Micro and Macro in Symbolic Context: 4. Religious elements in friendship: Durkheimian theory in an empirical context Ruth A. Wallace and Shirley F. Hartley; 5. The Durkheimian tradition in conflict sociology Randall Collins; 6. Social structure and civil religion: legitimation crisis in a late Durkheimian perspective Hans-Peter Müller; Part III. Ritualization and Public Life: 7. Articulating consenus: the ritual and rhetoric of media events Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz; 8. Culture and political crisis: 'Watergate' and Durkheimian sociology Jeffrey C. Alexander; Index.