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The Disobedient Generation

Social Theorists in the Sixties

The late 1960s are remembered today as the last time wholesale social upheaval shook Europe and the United States. College students during that tumultuous period—epitomized by the events of May 1968—were as permanently marked in their worldviews as their parents had been by the Depression and World War II. Sociology was at the center of these events, and it changed decisively because of them.

The Disobedient Generation collects newly written autobiographies by an international cross-section of well-known sociologists, all of them "children of the ’60s." It illuminates the human experience of living through that decade as apprentice scholars and activists, encountering the issues of class, race, the Establishment, the decline of traditional religion, feminism, war, and the sexual revolution. In each case the interlinked crises of young adulthood, rapid change, and nascent professional careers shaped this generation’s private and public selves. This is an intensely personal collective portrait of a generation in a time of struggle.

Reviews

The DisobedientGeneration is a tremendously engaging volume that collects intellectual and in some cases political autobiographies of a generation of some of the best contemporary social theorists who came of age roughly in 1968 and went on to be distinguished in the field of sociology. The text is in itself an interesting sociological work, exploring how those individuals who lived through the experiences of the ‘60s came to seek a career in sociology and how their formative ‘60s experiences influenced them during their academic lives. Many people within the field and even those outside of it will find this collection fascinating.”--Douglas Kellner, University of California, Los Angeles


 

Douglas Kellner | Douglas Kellner

The Disobedient Generation provides a very compelling portrait of the lives of a diverse stratum of leading sociologists who were coming of age in the late sixties. These original essays explore how the experiences of that unique era helped shaped these academics’ lives, careers, and theoretical work—work that still bears the ‘60s  imprint in one way or another. As such, it also offers a fascinating chronicle of a period of change in sociology and in the wider society as well.”--Robert J. Antonio, University of Kansas



 

Robert J. Antonio | Robert J. Antonio

Table of Contents

Preface
ALAN SICA
Introduction: What Has 1968 Come to Mean?
ANDREW ABBOTT
Losing Faith
JEFFREY C. ALEXANDER
The Sixties and Me: From Cultural Revolution to Cultural Theory
MICHAEL BURAWOY
Antinomian Marxist
CRAIG CALHOUN
My Back Pages
PATRICIA HILL COLLINS
That’s Not Why I Went to School
KAREN SCHWEERS COOK
The Sociology of Power and Justice: Coming of Age in the Sixties
JOHN A. HALL
Life in the Cold
PAOLO JEDLOWSKI
Becoming a Sociologist in Italy
HANS JOAS
A Pragmatist from Germany
KARIN KNORR CETINA
Culture of Life
MICHEL MAFFESOLI
Dionysus and the Ideals of 1968
WILLIAM OUTHWAITE
From Switzerland to Sussex
SASKIA SASSEN
Always a Foreigner, Always at Home
LAURENT THÉVENOT
The Two Bodies of May 1968: In Common, in Person
BRYAN TURNER
The 1968 Student Revolts: The Expressive Revolution and Generational Politics
STEPHEN TURNER
High on Insubordination
STEVE WOOLGAR
Ontological Disobedience-Definitely! {Maybe}
ERIK OLIN WRIGHT
Falling into Marxism; Choosing to Stay
Index

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