Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Ralf Dahrendorf

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1331468329 ISBN 13: 9781331468325

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2019

Synopsis

Excerpt from Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society In the middle of the twentieth century, the sociologist finds himself in an awkward position. While he is just beginning to lay and secure the foundations of his discipline, an impatient public demands with increasing urgency both immediately applicable and comprehensive solutions from him. Following almost every sociological conference, confident journalists charge sociologists with being either ignorant of practical problems or incapable of solving them. Like an angry creditor, the public pursues the sociologist's every move in order to lay its hands on every penny he may produce. Is it surprising that under these conditions many a sociologist has begun to forge currency.? The public deserves no better; but unfortunately the false currency, the overly rapid as well as the all-embracing solutions harm the progress of sociology as well. They remove sociological discussion from the sphere of scholarly criticism which inspires ever new efforts to that of a sterile quarrel of opinions. It is therefore necessary to make a decision. The sociologist certainly is a debtor of the society in which he lives in a way unparalleled in most other disciplines of scholarship. But this debt merely forces him to choose the subjects of his research in such a way that its results - if any - might contribute to informing society about itself. This is all. In developing his theories, methods, and techniques, the sociologist is bound exclusively by the rules of all scholarship, which demand from him accuracy and adherence to that pedestrian path of science which nobody else can take for him and which no magic force can abridge. Inevitably, this path involves byways and detours; it is a long way, and its destination may disappoint his and others' expectations; perhaps somebody else soon shows that the path chosen was altogether wrong. But if an ill-advised public does not understand the process of scientific inquiry and demands mo

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Product Description

Excerpt from Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society

Generalizing theoretical formulation and its empirical test are balanced in the present investigation. With R. K. Merton I regard theories of the middle range as the immediate task of sociological research: generalizations that are inspired by or oriented towards concrete observations. However, the exposition of the theory of social classes and class conflict stands in the center of this investiga tion. The résumé of Marx's theory of class, the largely descriptive account of some historical changes of the past century, and the eriti cal examination of some earlier theories of class, including that of Marx, lead up to the central theoretical chapters; with the analysis of post-capitalist society in terms of class theory a first empirical test of my theoretical position is intended. The whole investigation re mains in the middle range also in that it is, as its title indicates, confined to industrial society.

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About this edition

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1331468329
• ISBN 13: 9781331468325
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 358