A Blueprint for Inclusion

Talcott Parsons, the Societal Community and the Future of Universalistic Solidarities

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9601641
AutoresG Sciortino (0000-0002-7210-8016, University of Trento, autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume52
Fascículo1
Páginas159-177
Data de publicação2021-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe American Sociologist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0003-1232 • E-ISSN: 1936-4784
EditoraSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12108-020-09470-0
OpenAlexW3095616732
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas14
Referências citadas35

In the last decades of his life, Talcott Parsons was often indicted as conservative. More recently, his analyses of contemporary society have been perceived as obsolete. In the present paper, I argue that both these accounts are wrong. Parsons’s biographical and intellectual profile is clearly – and rather consistently – that of a New Deal liberal. His “ate” works, moreover, articulate an original view of the integrative processes in modern societies that is still both theoretically compelling and politically relevant. Parsons’s view of modernity has made possible the development of a sophisticated theory of societal pluralism, able to deal analytically with the astonishing variety of structural strains (and resources) arising from an increasingly diverse – in racial, religious, ethnic, sexual and moral terms - membership in contemporary societies. His sociological enthusiasm for inclusion has never been blind to the likelihood of backlashes and the strength of discontent such inclusion may bring. His work provides thus some important directions in the current storm

Blueprint · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Inclusion (mineral · Pluralism (philosophy · Social science · Sociology · Structural functionalism · Variety (cybernetics · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Social and Cultural Dynamics