Ideology and sociology

Reflections on Karl Mannheim'sIdeology and Utopia

Bibliographic Data

ID6292891
AuthorsKrishan Kumar (0000-0001-9429-3147, University of Virginia, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume11
Issue2
Pages169-181
Publication date2006-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Political Ideologies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1356-9317 • E-ISSN: 1469-9613
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13569310600687940
OpenAlexW2064248985
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited1

Ideology was a favourite and much-discussed concept for many sociologists in the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Undoubtedly this was mainly connected to Marxism, but Karl Mannheim—as a critic of Marx—had his part to play in this too. Ideology, and with it Mannheim's work, fell into disfavour with the retreat from Marxism in the 1980s and 1990s. But one could argue that much of what Mannheim discussed under the heading 'ideology' can now be found under other labels in sociology, such as 'social constructionism' and 'discourse analysis'. Mannheim's treatment of utopias suffered an analogous fate to his treatment of ideology, being caught up in a general suspicion of utopian thinking among professional sociologists. Utopian scholars, for their part, were unhappy with Mannheim's rendition of utopia as revolutionary or messianic social movements rather than the realized picture of the perfect society that they found in the literary utopia. There are many calls for the revival of utopian thought at the present time, but they fail to specify—as Mannheim was always at pains to do—what social and political conditions are likely to favour such a revival

Aesthetics · Epistemology · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Utopia · Utopian socialism · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Psychology

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