The Unmasking Style in Social Theory

Bibliographic Data

ID7101676
AuthorsPeter Baehr (0000-0001-7921-7162, corresponding author)
Year2019
Publication date2019-05-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueUnmasking Style in Social Theory (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781315107868
OpenAlexW2944416386
Open LibraryOL40090622M
ISBN9781315107868
LanguageEN
Citations received30

This book examines the nature of unmasking in social theory, in revolutionary movements and in popular culture. Unmasking is not the same as scientific refutation or principled disagreement. When people unmask, they claim to rip off a disguise, revealing the true beneath the feigned. The author distinguishes two basic types of unmasking. The first, aimed at persons or groups, exposes hypocrisy and enmity, and is a staple of revolutionary movements. The second, aimed at ideas, exposes illusions and ideologies, and is characteristic of radical social theory since the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. The Unmasking Style in Social Theory charts the intellectual origins of unmasking, its shifting priorities, and its specific techniques in social theory. It also explores sociology's relationship to the concept of unmasking through an analysis of writers who embrace, adapt or reshape its meaning. Such sociologists include Vilfredo Pareto, Karl Mannheim, Raymond Aron, Peter Berger, Pierre Bourdieu, Luc Boltanski and Christian Smith. Finally, taking conspiracy theories, accusations of social phobia and new concepts such as micro-aggression as examples of unmasking techniques, the author shows how unmasking contributes to the polarization and bitterness of much public discussion. Demonstrating how unmasking is baked into modern culture, yet arguing that alternatives to it are still possible, this book is, in sum, a compelling study of unmasking and its impact upon modern political life and social theory

Art · Epistemology · Literature · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Philosophy · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Anthropology · General · Regional Studies · Social Science

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