Civilizational Turn in the Contemporary Sociology: the Contribution of S.N. Eisenstadt

Civilizational Turn in the Contemporary Sociology:
the Contribution of S.N. Eisenstadt


Braslavskiy R.G.

Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Deputy Director for Science, Sociological Institute of FCTAS RAS, St. Petersburg, Russia (r.braslavsky@socinst.ru); Vladimir V. KOZLOVSKIY, r.braslavsky@socinst.ru

Кozlovskiy V.V.

Dr. Sci. (Philos.), director, Sociological Institute of FCTAS RAS; Prof., St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia v.kozlovskiy@socinst.ru

ID of the Article:


The research was funded by the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 23-18-01067.

Rubric: History of sociology

For citation:

Braslavskiy R.G., Кozlovskiy V.V. Civilizational Turn in the Contemporary Sociology: the Contribution of S.N. Eisenstadt. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2023. No 10. P. 116-125


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Abstract

The article highlights the contribution of Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt (1923–2010) to the elaboration of key sociological ideas in civilizational analysis. The appeal to the civilizational approach in contemporary sociology is caused by theoretical and methodological deficit in understanding multiple national, regional, local and global sociocultural configurations of dynamic modernity. The sociological tradition of civilizational analysis is represented by M. Weber, E. Durkheim, M. Mauss, P.A. Sorokin, N. Elias, B. Nelson, E. Tiryakian, S. Arjomand, J. Arnason and other scholars. Among them, a most significant figure who played key role in turning contemporary sociology towards civilizational analysis is S.N. Eisenstadt. His concepts of “civilizational dimension of societies”, “axial civilizations”, “multiple modernities”, “civilization of modernity” set the agenda of contemporary civilizational analysis.


Keywords
civilizational analysis; sociology; Axial Age; multiple modernities; civilization; modernity; S.N. Eisenstadt

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