Durkheim's Ghosts: Cultural Logics and Social Things
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Overview
Durkheim's Ghosts is a fascinating presentation of the tradition of social theory influenced by Emile Durkheim's thinking on the social foundations of knowledge. From Saussure and Levi-Strauss to Foucault, Bourdieu, and Derrida, today's criticisms of modern politics and culture owe an important, if unacknowledged, debt to Durkheim. These engaging and innovative essays by leading sociologist Charles Lemert bring together his writings on the contributions of French social theory past and present. Rather than merely interpret the theories, Lemert uses them to explore the futures of sociology, social theory, and culture studies. Durkheim's Ghosts offers the reader original insights into Durkheim's legacy and the wider French traditions in the cultural and social sciences.Synopsis
An innovative collection of essays influenced by Emile Durkheim's thinking on the social foundations of knowledge.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"Charles Lemert's deft disentanglement of Durkheim's legacy in social theory crowns a career devoted to exploring the cultural logics of social things. Durkheim's Ghosts is a brilliant and beautiful book, a passionate reflection on the powers and limits of French social theory's contributions to the understanding of culture."-Anthony Elliott,Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent and author of Critical Visions: New Directions in Social Theory (2003)
"The bodies of classical theory that outlive the conditions and times that produce them haunt us as scholarly ghosts. These hauntings can be either positive or negative, depending on how we handle them. Charles Lemert brilliantly explores the legacy of both the classical ghosts — Marx, Freud, Durkheim and Mauss — and a range of more proximate giants — Fanon, Foucault, Derrida and others — to provide a critical insight into French social theory. Durkheim's Ghosts is amongst other things a fascinating intellectual journey through twentieth century structuralism and its aftermath. The result is an analytical map of the tensions between the social and the cultural that have shaped the terrain of contemporary social thought. This is a journey not to be missed."
-Bryan S. Turner, Asia Research Institute, Singapore
"Were an ambitious novice to ask me today what book one might read in order to understand the Gallic theoretical tradition at its most vital, Durkheim's Ghosts would head the short list. Lemert's famous limpidity, in combination with a solid understanding of what French thinking is all about from the time of the Paris Commune forward, makes it an easy choice."
-Alan Sica, Pennsylvania State University, American Journal of Sociology