A Sociology of Belief from an Evolutionary Perspective

John H. Simpson

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Chapter 9 A Sociology of Belief from an Evolutionary Perspective

In: Globalization/Glocalization: Developments in Theory and Application

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John H. Simpson

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 163–178

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004500365_010

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The chapter analyses how Robertson’s globalization theory is to a significant extent founded in classical sociology, developing classical theory to include society at the global level. As such, it contains as one of its points of departure the theory of Talcott Parsons. Beginning with a biographical sketch of Robertson’s professional life and work, the argument is that Robertson took Parsons’ theory of the action system and the social system from the national level to the global level through the four-field model that incorporates the Parsons’ system of modern societies, the national society, individuals, and the telic ends in the form of humanity. The link is then made through a discussion of the question of double contingency, a rendition of the classical question of how social order is possible. The suggestion is that, whereas Parsons and Robertson answered this question through the idea of shared normative culture as that which mediates the social, another possibility presents itself in the theory of Niklas Luhmann, who answered the question of social order through the idea of communication and systems of communication, not through the notion of shared culture. The Luhmannian approach obviates the theoretical necessity of a normative cultural composition of the global system and therefore can speak of a world society even in the absence of shared culture. For Luhmann, the problem of double contingency is solved through the structure of communications which constitute systems of communication, and therefore only the communication needs to happen worldwide for there to be a global society.

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Globalization/Glocalization: Developments in Theory and Application

Essays in Honour of Roland Robertson

Series: International Studies in Sociology and Social Anthropology, Volume: 139

Cover Globalization/Glocalization: Developments in Theory and Application

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004500365

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 19 Nov 2021

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- Social Sciences

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Chapter 9 A Sociology of Belief from an Evolutionary Perspective

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Globalization/Glocalization: Developments in Theory and Application

Essays in Honour of Roland Robertson

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