A Treatise on Social Theory: Volume 2, Substantive Social Theory: 002 - Rilegato

Runciman, W. G.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0521249597 ISBN 13: 9780521249591

Casa editrice: Cambridge University Press, 1989

Riassunto

This second of three volumes sets out a general account of the structure and evolution of human societies. The author argues first that societies are to be defined as sets of roles whose incumbents are competitors for access to, or control of, the means of production, persuasion and coercion; and second, that the process by which societies evolve is one of competitive selection of the practices by which roles are defined analagous, but not reducible, to natural selection. He illustrates and tests these theses with evidence drawn from the whole range of societies documented in the historical and ethnographic record. The result is an original, powerful and far-reaching reformulation of evolutionary sociological theory which will make it possible to do for the classification and analysis of societies what Darwin and his successors have done for the classification and analysis of species.

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Recensione:

'This is a masterpiece: in its scope and its command of historical and ethnographic detail, it is reminiscent of Economy and Society; in its systematization more gripping.' David Lockwood

'It is an astonishing bravura performance ... I have not come across another approach to comparative history which has impressed me so much.' Eric Hobsbawm

'This is an important and remarkable book. It is extremely ambitious offering nothing less than a general theory of human society, and the confrontation of that theory with the historical material. The quality of the material is commensurate with the ambition.' Ernest Gellner

Descrizione del libro:

The concluding volume to W. G. Runciman's magisterial treatise applies his methodological distinction between reportage, explanation, description, and evaluation expounded in Volume I and the theory of social selection expounded in Volume II to the particular case of twentieth-century English society.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Cambridge University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0521249597
• ISBN 13: 9780521249591
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 512