The sociological theory of C. Wright Mills

Toward a critique of postmodernity

Bibliographic Data

ID20034411
AuthorsSteven P Dandaneau (corresponding author)
Year2008
Pages383-401
Publication date2008-07-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueNo Social Science Without Critical Theory (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherEmerald (MCB UP ) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/s0278-1204(08)00013-3
OpenAlexW2492659569
ISBN9780762314836
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

The “theory” in the distinctive sociological theory of C. Wright Mills is this: American society was increasingly “postmodern,” by which he meant a society devoid of reason and freedom as practical features of everyday life and thus a societal formation fundamentally severed from the aims and optimism of The Enlightenment (Mills, 1959b, p. 13, p. 166, also 1959a). With Max Weber and John Dewey principally in mind, but also upon the benefit of his study of Marx and the Frankfurt School, Mills argued that “rationality without reason” was coming to dominate lived experience (see Dandaneau, 2001, 2006, 2007)

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Contradiction · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Everyday life · Postmodernism · Postmodernity · Psychoanalysis · Rationality · Social science · Sociological theory · Sociology · Wright · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Philosophy · Psychology

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