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Full Product Details

Author:   Peter Wagner (Professor of Social and Political Theory, European University Institute)
Publisher:   John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Imprint:   Polity Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.00cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 23.60cm
Weight:   0.581kg
ISBN:  

9780745642185

ISBN 10:   0745642187
Pages:   296
Publication Date:   11 April 2008
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

Preface vii 1 Ways of Understanding Modernity 1 Part I: Interpretations of Political Modernity: Liberty and its Discontents 19 Overture: Multiple Interpretations of Political Modernity 21 2 Modernity and the Question of Freedom 24 3 The Political Forms of Modernity 39 4 Modernity as a Project of Emancipation and the Possibility of Politics 62 Part II: Interpretations of Economic Modernity: The Endgame and After 75 Overture: Capitalism and Modernity as Social Formations and as Imaginary Signifi cations 77 5 The Critique of Capitalism and its Impasse 83 6 Towards a Historical-Comparative Sociology of Capitalism 103 7 The Exit from Organized Economic Modernity 123 Part III: Interpretations of Epistemic Modernity: Distance and Involvement 143 Overture: The Quest for Knowledge beyond Experience and Interpretation 145 8 The Critique of Science and its Prospects 149 9 Varieties of Socio-political Interpretations of Modernity 165 Part IV: The European Experience and Interpretation of Modernity 189 Overture: European Integration as an Interpretation of Modernity 191 10 Logics of European History 196 11 Regionalizing European Modernity 215 Part V: The Analysis of Modernity and the Need for a New Sociology 231 Overture: When the Light of the Cultural Problems has Moved On 233 12 The Social Theory and Political Philosophy of Modernity 235 13 The Conceptual History and Historical Sociology of Modernity 247 Notes 265 References 282 Index 297

Reviews

Already established as the master analyst of modernity, Peter Wagner now brings us to new levels of understanding of the idea. After reading this splendid volume, I stopped cursing the day that the concept of modernity was invented. Wagner effectively addresses its embarrassments, snarls, paradoxes, and complexities. He brings us far toward a new comparative grasp of the variations and vicissitudes of its intertwined political, economic, and scientific-philosophical dimensions. It is not too much to say that he has brought modernity up to date. Neil Smelser, University of California BerkeleyPeter Wagner's analysis is unfailingly intelligent and judicious, and often brilliant. This is twenty-first century social and political theory at its very best. William Outhwaite, University of Newcastle

Author Information

Peter Wagner is ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona.

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