Peter Berger on Modernization and Modernity: An Unvarnished Overview (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)

Functional equivalents of the Protestant Ethic -- The Capitalist Revolution and The Managerial Revolution -- Social mobility -- Upward structural mobility -- Rates of mobility -- Education and social mobility -- Individual mobility: a zero-sum game -- 14. What has been done? -- 15. Styles of consciousness and pluralism -- Identity formation -- Religious faith -- 16. Reservations about pluralism -- Modernization and the once taken-for-granted -- Internal eccentricities and vulnerability -- 17. The complexity of modern consciousness -- Immiseration revisited -- Material practice -- 18. The continuing influence of Weber -- Free will -- Social roles -- Sociology: seeing through or seeing? -- The strength of sociological determinism -- Conceptual elusiveness of free will -- Invitation to sociology and determinism again -- 19. Modernization augmented -- Variability of modernization and of modern roles -- Anticipating ideologies -- Primacy of technology-intensive production -- Hypothetical process of modernization -- The role of political bureaucracies -- Third World bureaucracies -- Modernization and disruption through capitalist and socialist endeavors -- Collisions of consciousness -- Many forms of rationality -- Traditional modes of reality in the Third World -- Homelessness in perspective -- 20. Modernity and its discontents: a suitably ironic closing -- Relativism, fundamentalism, and a middle ground -- Insights of sociological tourism -- Bibliography -- Index Covers -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Foreword -- 1. Background: Berger's prose, presentation, and purpose -- Commonsense knowledge and the reality of everyday life -- Even brilliant scholars inevitably err -- Berger's discovery of capitalism -- Value-free sociology -- Minor mystifications -- A provisional summing up -- 2. Institutions: Berger's conceptual foundation -- The necessity of culture -- The ubiquity of rationality -- The sacred as a complement to the rational -- Styles of consciousness: the sociology of knowledge -- Commonsense knowledge of everyday life -- Objectivity and error -- 3. The sociological tourist -- Adopting relevance structures -- Testable hypotheses -- "Cognitive maps"--Berger's research in social context -- 4. Ever the Weberian -- Berger on Marx and Durkheim -- Ideology and interpretation: Marx -- Ideology and interpretation: Durkheim -- Ideology and interpretation: technological determinism -- 5. Sociological insights into the exemplary, the everyday, and the execrable -- Modernity defined -- Many meanings of modernity in bits and pieces -- The relationship between modernization and modernity -- 6. Socially constructing modernization, modernity, and our social world -- Taken-for-granted predictability -- Objectification or objectivation -- Subjective meanings as objective facticities -- Institutions and social roles -- The generalized other -- Society as man-made and inherently precarious -- 7. Production through science-based technology -- Science-based technology and bureaucracy -- Berger's commitment to Weber -- The convergence hypothesis -- Modernity and the malleability of human beings -- Legitimation: the first generation -- Legitimation: across generations -- Legitimation challenged -- Agents of legitimation: Christian and otherwise "With particular attention to his work on modernization and modernity as construed by a sociologist of knowledge, this book offers a sympathetic exposition and evaluation of Peter Berger's work as one of the world's most accomplished and influential sociologists. In the context of an examination of Berger's ongoing work on the social construction of reality, styles of consciousness, the role of science-based technology, pluralism, and other pertinent topics, the author also considers Berger's unique and thoughtful approach to research and theorizing. Berger's method of 'sociological tourism', which departs sharply from the current emphasis in the social sciences on ever more complex and ostensibly rigorous statistical procedures, provides a refreshing move away from the increasingly esoteric and sometimes alienating methodological self-consciousness that characterizes contemporary sociology. With this distinctive approach, this book will appeal to scholars and students of sociology who share Berger's interest. The importance of modernization and modernity on a world scale is undeniable, and a deeper understanding of their nature and consequences, will also benefit members of the intelligent laity who are not sociological specialists but are open to new ideas that are clearly explained."--Provided by publisher Background: Berger's Prose, Presentation, And Purpose -- Institutions: Berger's Conceptual Foundation -- The Sociological Tourist -- Ever The Weberian -- Sociological Insights Into The Exemplary, The Everyday, And The Execrable -- Socially Constructing Modernization, Modernity, And Our Social World -- Production Through Science-based Technology -- Modes Of Production And Cognitive Styles -- Provisionally Taking Stock : Modes Of Production And Cognitive Styles -- Modes Of Production And Cognitive Styles Amplified -- Reality As A Social Creation -- Pluralism -- Pluralism And Capitalism -- What Has Been Done? -- Styles Of Consciousness And Pluralism -- Reservations About Pluralism -- The Complexity Of Modern Consciousness -- The Continuing Influence Of Weber -- Modernization Augmented -- Modernity And Its Discontents : A Suitably Ironic Closing. Robert Bickel, Professor Emeritus, Advanced Educational Studies, College Of Education, Marshall University. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 187-194) And Index.