Problematics of sociology

This collection of essays is based on the Georg Simmel Lectures delivered by Neil J. Smelser at Humboldt University in Berlin in the spring of 1995. It comprises a distillation of his reflections after nearly four decades of research, teaching and thought in the field of sociology. Each chapter considers a different level of sociological analysis: micro (the person and personal ineraction); meso (groups, organizations and movements); macro (societies); and global (multi-societal). Within this framework, Smelser covers a variety of topics, including the place of the rational and the non-rational in social action and in social science theory; the changing character of group attachments in post-industrial society; the eclipse of social class; and the decline of the nation-state as a focus of solidarity.