G Mclennan
Biographic Data
| ID | 9311 |
|---|---|
| NAME | G Mclennan |
| GIVEN NAMES | G |
| FAMILY NAME | Mclennan |
| SIGNATURE | MCLENNAN G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bristol |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0248-4497 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 67 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 293 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 67 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1971 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Multiplex colonial sociology
This article assesses George Steinmetz's The Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought: French Sociology and the Overseas Empire. Princeton University Press. Princeton and Oxford, 2023. ISBN 9780691237428 (hbk) xvi + 551. Expertly illuminating the neglected constellation of French colonial sociology, Steinmetz emphatically extends recent reconciliatory moves on the question of decolonizing sociology. With and beyond Bourdieu, taxing issues persis…
Stuart Hall, a peerless mediator
The authors discuss Stuart Hall's lifelong critical engagement with Marxism - though his was a complex, subtle, agonistic, Marxism, where nothing is taken for granted. This engagement continued even as postcoloniality, ethnicity, race and identity steadily came to the centre of Hall's attention, constituting ways of thinking that in some ways represented a departure. Hall can be seen as a mediator, both within Marxism - for example structuralism …
The postsecular Marx
The emergence of 'postsecularism' prompts a re-assessment of the question of Marxism-and-religion, following a long period of polarization then a later twentieth-century phase of ambivalent reticence. But much hangs on whether postsecularism is taken to entail anti-secularism, and whether the latter, though a notable tendency in contemporary social theory, is convincing. The main thrust of this article is to counter two influential strands of the…
The ‘postmodern turn’ in the social sciences
Review: The ‘Postmodern Turn’ in the Social Sciences by Simon Susen, Houndmills, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, xi + 510 pp., £?? (Hardback) ISBN 978-0-230-57929-3
Quiddity and Flux
Is secularism history
In recent years, the intellectual tide has moved strongly against the kind of secular thinking that characterized Gellner's work. Whether couched in terms of postcolonialism, multiculturalism, genealogy, global understanding, political theology, or the revival of normative, metaphysical and openly religious perspectives, today's postsecular and even anti-secular mood in social theory seems to consign Gellner's project to the dustbin of history: a…
Sociology, Cultural Studies and the Cultural Turn
For 40 years, the relationship between sociology and cultural studies has posed central questions of self-definition and practice for both projects. By orchestrating a range of manifesto-style statements — the full literature can only be gestured towards — this chapter offers an analytical profile of the unfolding dealings between the two formations, starting with the prevailing discourse around sociology at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural S…
Sociology, Cultural Studies and the Cultural Turn
Complicity, complexity, historicism
The exchange between Herb Lewis and George Steinmetz1 in relation to the latter's edited collection Sociology & Empire poses central issues about the significance of postcoloniality for sociology
Postcolonial Critique
Sociology is often pitched as the social science discipline most obviously in need of postcolonial deconstruction, owing to its ostensibly more transparent Eurocentrism as a formation. For this reason, even postcolonial scholars working within the ambit of sociology are reluctant to play up its analytical strengths in addition to exposing its ideological deficits. Without underestimating the profound impact of the growing body of postcolonial the…
GREGOR McLennan Interview – 24 MAY 2011
One of a collection of reflections by leading cultural studies figures on the experience and significance of the University of Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in the 1970s. Special issue of the journal Cultural Studies: 'Contributions to a History of CCCS'
Charting Radical Theory
Mr Love and Justice
The Postsecular Turn
In this article, I engage with three overlapping expressions of the increasingly postsecular cast of social and cultural theory. These currents - guided, respectively, by genealogical critique, neo-vitalist social philosophy and postcolonial anti-historicism - seek to problematize the frame of previous radical theorizing by exposing definite connections between the epistemological and political levels of secular understanding, and by assuming tha…
On Malevolence
Disinterested, disengaged, useless
There is evidence aplenty of academics' increasing incorporation into the life and fate of their university's brand, just as it is clear that university structures and incentives generally are dependent upon increasingly competitive resource capture under tightened managerial ideologies of institutional commitment (albeit by way of innumerable “consultation” and “responsibilisation” mechanisms). In that context, it becomes important to re‐think a…
Progressive pluralism
In this article, a recent volume of pluralist political theory is taken as expressive of the state of the pluralist tradition, and subjected to critical examination. Whether couched in terms of empirical democratic theory, associationalist social democracy, global multi‐nodal politics, or multiculturalism, both separately and together these contemporary articulations of pluralist thinking are shown to be problematical. Overall, the suggestion is …
Among the Unbelievers
Gregor McLennan on Charles Taylor, A Secular Age. A dialectical account of God’s role under conditions of modernity, with otherworldly intimations of ‘fullness’ compensating for materialism’s spiritual void
Towards Postsecular Sociology
This article identifies four articulations of the growing 'postsecular' condition of social and political thought, and places the idea of sociology in relation to them. I identify and critically engage with those aspects of poststructuralist vitalism, transcendental realism, multiculturalist thinking, and the recent 'dialogical' sentiments of Habermas that might undermine sociology's definitive (but broadly conceived) secularism/naturalism. This …
Eurocentrism
Through the 1980s and 1990s, numerous ‘special issues’ on postcolonial theory and politics were published in the journals; but not in the sociology journals, where only a very few individual articles on these themes appeared (Mouzelis 1997, Parker 1997). Meanwhile, popular textbooks on the sociological classics (Hughes et al . 1995, Craib 1997) barely touched on the questions that Seidman and Lemert were raising about Eurocentrism in the founding…
Sociological Culturalism
If multiculturalism cannot provide a coherent intellectual or normative basis for sociological cultural studies, perhaps a culturalist approach to sociology that includes at least a significant element of multiculturalism can be developed? Over the past fifteen years or so, the ‘new American cultural sociology’ (Smith 1998) has emerged as a significant and confident intervention of this kind, designed to re-orientate sociology and cultural studie…
Cultural Studies//Sociology
In this chapter, I develop an accounts of the rhetorical scenarios that have governed debate between cultural studies and sociology over the years. These are presented more as theoretical attitudes and writing styles rather than as explicit models as such. And whilst they follow, roughly, a timeline from the 1970s to the present day, they are not intended to mark precise chronological phases , as the overlapping dates of various references will r…
Explanation, Articulation, Imagination
I argued in Chapter 1 that if the idea of sociology requires ‘traditionalist’ benchmarks for enquiry, these remain indispensable even under postpositivist lights. Then, in Chapter 2, I showed that if sociology and cultural studies are significantly different in some aspects of their intellectual styles and characteristic interests, there are many respects in which they share the same investigative and pedagogic terrain, and common resources in th…
Postpositivism and the Idea of Sociology
If a strong whiff of suspicion characterized the response of many practising sociologists to the whole question of postmodernism and the cultural turn, this may have been because the very idea of sociology appeared to be under threat. We can elaborate this generic, often tacit idea of sociology by saying that it has to do with the viability of notions of structured social totalities, and the possibility of making authoritative distinctions betwee…
Eurocentrism
Having outlined some key elements in the case for sociological cultural studies, I now want to address an issue that appears to jeopardize the project on something like ideological grounds: sociology’s Eurocentrism . With cultural studies today very much associated with postcolonialist normative and theoretical standpoints, sociology’s Eurocentrism could hardly be overlooked or just set aside. Indeed, by comparison with related disciplines such a…
The Postsecular Turn
In this article, I engage with three overlapping expressions of the increasingly postsecular cast of social and cultural theory. These currents - guided, respectively, by genealogical critique, neo-vitalist social philosophy and postcolonial anti-historicism - seek to problematize the frame of previous radical theorizing by exposing definite connections between the epistemological and political levels of secular understanding, and by assuming tha…
Sociological Cultural Studies
In a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the relationship between sociology and cultural studies, Gregor McLennan lucidly guides us from central philosophical questions in the social sciences to
Marxism and the Methodologies of History
Towards Postsecular Sociology
This article identifies four articulations of the growing 'postsecular' condition of social and political thought, and places the idea of sociology in relation to them. I identify and critically engage with those aspects of poststructuralist vitalism, transcendental realism, multiculturalist thinking, and the recent 'dialogical' sentiments of Habermas that might undermine sociology's definitive (but broadly conceived) secularism/naturalism. This …
Marxism, Pluralism and Beyond
Sociology's Complexity
Engaging with recent keynote reflections on 'sociology at the end of the millennium', this article critically examines ways in which the current discourse of complexity can be related to characterizations of the intellectual style of sociology. After taking issue with the familiar characterization of sociology as quintessentially modernist, where modernist equates to 'reductionist' and 'simplistic', three more specific interventions are construed…
Critical or Positive Theory? A Comment on the Status of Anthony Giddens' Social Theory
The 'New American Cultural Sociology
This article critically examines the structure and content of the 'New American Cultural Sociology', through an engagement with the recent writings of its main representative, Jeffrey Alexander. Alexander's project to retool sociology and cultural studies alike is coherent and ambitious, and his transition from theory scholar to public intellectual makes an assessment of that project additionally necessary. I argue, however, that while it gives a…
Sociology's Eurocentrism and the `Rise of the West' Revisited
Under the impact of `postcolonial' critique, it is increasingly assumed in radical social theory that traditional disciplines like sociology remain palpably Eurocentric. However, this important challenge is typically advanced at a very general level, often lacking adequate instantiation. In this article some general formulations of the problem of Eurocentrism are connected to the work of three pairs of theorists in historical sociology. Foregroun…
After Postmodernism - Back to Sociological Theory
I outline and examine the reassertion by Nicos Mouzelis of some 'traditionalist' elements in the idea of sociological theory, following what he sees as an excess of philosophising in the discipline. I argue that Mouzelis's recent work constitutes a weighty response to the prevailing climate of ambivalence about the purpose and type of social theory that is required today, and in so doing it also interestingly reflects a loose but noticeable neo-t…
Sociology, Eurocentrism and Postcolonial Theory
Postcolonial theory, particularly in its poststructuralist variant, presents important challenges to sociology's self-image, and open debate on these attempts to `unsettle' the modernist, Westernized disciplines is both conceptually and politically interesting. However, the postcolonial unsettling of sociology has to be actively extracted and reconstructed from the key texts of postcolonial theory - it is not transparently available as such - and…
Post-Marxism and the 'Four Sins' of Modernist Theorizing
In this paper, I want to tackle some of the underlying issues around ‘post-Marxism’ in contemporary social theory, using just one exemplar of this emerging framework, namely Michèle Barrett’s book The Politics of Truth: From Marx to Foucault. The rationale for this limited focus is that the field
Thus
Through two exchanges in this journal, a type of relativism has been advanced by a group of authors from Loughborough University with a view to demolishing what they see as ‘bottom line’ arguments for critical realism in the social sciences. Jauntily dismissing realism, they also soberly disown the supposed ‘extreme’ consequences that some realists insist follow naturally from relativist conceptions of social inquiry. In this article, I contest t…
Complicity, complexity, historicism
The exchange between Herb Lewis and George Steinmetz1 in relation to the latter's edited collection Sociology & Empire poses central issues about the significance of postcoloniality for sociology
Sociological Cultural Studies
This article focuses on the relationship between sociology and cultural studies, arguing that sociological cultural studies represent an important transdisciplinary platform. The discussion highlights the work of a number of under-valued authors, positing, in a provisional way, that where sociology remains drawn to an ethos of ‘explanatory’ causal reasoning, cultural studies typically occupies a register of evocative and engaged social ‘descripti…
Can there be a ‘Critical’ Multiculturalism
Disinterested, disengaged, useless
There is evidence aplenty of academics' increasing incorporation into the life and fate of their university's brand, just as it is clear that university structures and incentives generally are dependent upon increasingly competitive resource capture under tightened managerial ideologies of institutional commitment (albeit by way of innumerable “consultation” and “responsibilisation” mechanisms). In that context, it becomes important to re‐think a…
Marxism and the Methodologies of History
On the Crisis of Marxist Theory
The labour aristocracy’ and ‘incorporation’
Historical discussion on the character of the working class in the later nineteenth century continues to flourish, not least in the pages of Social History. An unqualified merit of the topic has been its drawing together of sociological and political arguments. Indeed, it would not be too much to say that it also encourages in historiography reflection on the philosophical side of the discipline which is more often suppressed than utilized. The c…
Contemporary ‘vehicularity’ and ‘romanticism’
This essay considers the changing nature of ideas work and the role of intellectuals in contemporary informational capitalism, or, to use that ubiquitous phrase, ‘knowledge society’. It is worth re
Sociology and cultural studies
This article explores the interface between cultural studies and soci ology, as expressed through four scenarios which construe the 'debate' in particular ways. Two of these - 'cultural studies succession' and 'postmodernist conjuncturalist cultural studies' - unapologetically seek to dismiss sociology in favour of cultural studies, whilst a third - 'socio logical revenge' - appears to turn the tables entirely. A fourth and more productive scenar…
Feminism, Epistemology and Postmodernism
Feminism's eminent position in critical social science is now beyond question, and a range of substantial texts on feminism, epistemology and social theory have reworked the dominant male images of knowledge and society. However, within feminist discourses, some key epistemological questions - such as 'is feminist standpoint epistemology viable?' - remain unresolved. Indeed, they have become compounded by the anti-epistemological impetus of postm…
The postsecular Marx
The emergence of 'postsecularism' prompts a re-assessment of the question of Marxism-and-religion, following a long period of polarization then a later twentieth-century phase of ambivalent reticence. But much hangs on whether postsecularism is taken to entail anti-secularism, and whether the latter, though a notable tendency in contemporary social theory, is convincing. The main thrust of this article is to counter two influential strands of the…
Universities in ‘the condition of publicity’
This article analyses how one institution, the London School of Economics under Anthony Giddens’s directorship, sought to occupy the ‘condition of publicity’ that is increasingly a prerequisite for university success in ‘knowledge‐society’ contexts. In particular, we illustrate how the LSE has sought to develop a brand and practice that is policy‐relevant, close to society, media‐savvy and think‐tank‐like, whilst at the same time remaining impecc…
A Note on Callimachus, Hynm 5.83
SOME years ago Giangrande acutely suggested1 that we should read at the beginning of this line έσтààθη δ’ φθοολλος in place of Buttmann' proposal έσàκη δ’ θολλος accepted by Pfeiffer. Giangrande' emendation received upport from Meillier, who wrote:2 ‘Giangrande ... a trouvé de bonnes raisons pour conserver έσтààθη ... et propose έσтààθη δ’ φθοολλος.’ No one seems to have realized that there is a metrical difficulty involved in Buttmann' emendati…
Sur L'Usage Stylistique De L'Augment Chez Homère Et Chez Les Alexandrins
The Long Um and Biceps of the Greek Hexameter
Towards a Socialist History
Towards a Socialist History: Richard Johnson and His Critics: Towards a Constructive Debate Get access Gregor McLennan Gregor McLennan Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar History Workshop Journal, Volume 8, Issue 1, AUTUMN 1979, Pages 157–166, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/8.1.157 Published: 01 October 1979
The labour aristocracy’ and ‘incorporation’
Historical discussion on the character of the working class in the later nineteenth century continues to flourish, not least in the pages of Social History. An unqualified merit of the topic has been its drawing together of sociological and political arguments. Indeed, it would not be too much to say that it also encourages in historiography reflection on the philosophical side of the discipline which is more often suppressed than utilized. The c…
Sociology and History
Marxism and the Methodologies of History
On the Crisis of Marxist Theory
Critical or Positive Theory? A Comment on the Status of Anthony Giddens' Social Theory
Marxism and the Methodologies of History
Marxist Theory and Historical Research
Sovereign Individuals of Capitalism
Structuration Theory and Post-Empiricist Philosophy
Marxism, Pluralism and Beyond
Feminism, Epistemology and Postmodernism
Feminism's eminent position in critical social science is now beyond question, and a range of substantial texts on feminism, epistemology and social theory have reworked the dominant male images of knowledge and society. However, within feminist discourses, some key epistemological questions - such as 'is feminist standpoint epistemology viable?' - remain unresolved. Indeed, they have become compounded by the anti-epistemological impetus of postm…
After Postmodernism - Back to Sociological Theory
I outline and examine the reassertion by Nicos Mouzelis of some 'traditionalist' elements in the idea of sociological theory, following what he sees as an excess of philosophising in the discipline. I argue that Mouzelis's recent work constitutes a weighty response to the prevailing climate of ambivalence about the purpose and type of social theory that is required today, and in so doing it also interestingly reflects a loose but noticeable neo-t…
Post-Marxism and the 'Four Sins' of Modernist Theorizing
In this paper, I want to tackle some of the underlying issues around ‘post-Marxism’ in contemporary social theory, using just one exemplar of this emerging framework, namely Michèle Barrett’s book The Politics of Truth: From Marx to Foucault. The rationale for this limited focus is that the field
Sociology and cultural studies
This article explores the interface between cultural studies and soci ology, as expressed through four scenarios which construe the 'debate' in particular ways. Two of these - 'cultural studies succession' and 'postmodernist conjuncturalist cultural studies' - unapologetically seek to dismiss sociology in favour of cultural studies, whilst a third - 'socio logical revenge' - appears to turn the tables entirely. A fourth and more productive scenar…
The Question of Eurocentricism
In his critique of Eurocentrism, Immanuel Wallerstein has provided a useful discussion of a major issue for contemporary left politics and critical social science. By contrast with the higher-profile subject of ‘multi-culturalism’, to which it is of course related, the Eurocentrism question has received less considered debate. Wallerstein’s
Fin de Sociologie? The Dilemmas of Multidimensional Social Theory
The discourse of sociology, though never at the heart of modern bourgeois culture, has always seemed pivotal to the critical self-understanding of modernity. Unlike the other major disciplines, sociology has presented itself simultaneously as a special science of structural patterns and as a totalizing search for social meaning
Re-Canonizing Marx
In this article, I underline the continuing intellectual force and rhetorical sophistication of The Communist Manifesto. Both in terms of its explanatory and normative strategy, and in terms of the way it handles the discursive balance between monologue and dialogue, there are, remarkably, still fresh things to say about the way Marx's thought works in this text. The favourable reception given to the Manifesto on its sesqui-centenary is also due …
The ways ahead
Sociology's Eurocentrism and the 'Rise of the West' Revisited
Sociology's Eurocentrism and the `Rise of the West' Revisited
Under the impact of `postcolonial' critique, it is increasingly assumed in radical social theory that traditional disciplines like sociology remain palpably Eurocentric. However, this important challenge is typically advanced at a very general level, often lacking adequate instantiation. In this article some general formulations of the problem of Eurocentrism are connected to the work of three pairs of theorists in historical sociology. Foregroun…
Thus
Through two exchanges in this journal, a type of relativism has been advanced by a group of authors from Loughborough University with a view to demolishing what they see as ‘bottom line’ arguments for critical realism in the social sciences. Jauntily dismissing realism, they also soberly disown the supposed ‘extreme’ consequences that some realists insist follow naturally from relativist conceptions of social inquiry. In this article, I contest t…
Sociology (51 works) · Philosophy (50 works) · Epistemology (47 works) · Philosophy (30 works) · Political science (30 works) · Social science (30 works) · Law (27 works) · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice (21 works) · Anthropology (20 works) · Politics (20 works)