Vol.2, No 6/2 1999 pp. 293 - 295
NEW BOOKS REVIEW
BUCHBESPRECHUNGEN
AN OUTLOOK ON SOCIOLOGY
Toward the end of last year the Institute for Political Studies
and the Association "Science and Society" of Serbia published a book "Sociology"
written by Ljubiša Mitrović, Ph. D. professor of the Faculty of Philosophy
in Niš. "Sociology" is a revised and enlarged edition of the book "Fundamentals
of Sociology" published in 1988. Structurally, the book has been patterned,
primarily, to uphold the existing curriculum and suit the needs associated
with the education of sociologists. But, in certain aspects, through the
authors elaboration of some issues, it exceeds the said framework and reflects
upon some new ideas, new problems and categories.
The book "Sociology" is divided into four separate chapters:
(a) Development of Sociology, Its Subject-Matter, Method and Theory; (b)
Basic Categories of General Sociology; (c) Contemporary World Society,
and (d) Toward the "Sociology of Sociology". The comprehensiveness of the
chapters, particularly the first and the second, reveals the authors principle
aspiration: to develop an introduction into the basic categories of sociology
as a science in a systematic manner in more than five hundred pages. Those
chapters also reveal that the exposed contents comply with the logic-historical
and pedagogical requirements set for text-books, but also follow the interests
of the wither reading public, as well as the author's effort to articulate
his own personal reflections on sociology.
In the first chapter, focusing on sociology as an independent
science, the author determines its place among other common grounds and
gives a historical croquis of its constitution. Sociology is defined as
a theoretical-empirical science which, from the aspect of totality, studies
both "general and specific laws of the ways of reproduction of social relations
and modes of production of the complete social life, social structure and
social dynamics" (p. 31). Trailing a tendency to affirm theoretical pluralism
and a conception of multiparadigmatic nature of the modern sociology, the
author presents for inspection a comprehensive (detailed) review of social
ideas in the so-called pre-sociological era, classic (positivism, naturalism,
psychologism, formalism, Marxist social theory) and modern sociological
theories (functionalism, structuralism, phenomenological approach, theory
of social conflicts, neo-Marxism, post-Marxism, neoevolutionalism, culturalism,
theory of social action, symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, postmodern
social theory).
In the second chapter the focus is on the transitional
and central categories of the Marxist sociology. In reference to the different
approaches to this problem in the domestic literature, the author highlights
social affairs as a starting category in the explanation of the concept
of society, and mode of production of the social life as a central category
of the sociological analysis. Accordingly, the objective of sociology is
to analyze the position and role of the man, "social groups, classes and
movements in the process of production of the social life in the global
society as well as in the historical development of the human society in
general" (p. 237). Starting from the said categories, the focus moves to
the derived categories bearing significance for the social structure and
social dynamics, such as: labor and division of labor, social groups, culture,
forms of social movements, social conflicts and the like. The analysis
of the Marxian comprehension of society includes substantial ideas of the
creator of the dialectic theory relevant for the general sociology. After
this interpretation, the author presents his own ideas about the problem
at issue, which is, otherwise, a characteristic of the entire book.
The third chapter is a presentation of the typology of
global societies, the basic direction of global social changes in the world,
connections between the scientific-technological revolution and global
social changes, the nature of post-socialist societies, a concept of transition
and participative democracy. The essential feature of the modern world
society, as emphasized by the author, is that it is undergoing major changes
- from a revolution in the mode of production to the one in the way of
living. This has been directly caused by the global social changes, primarily
in the area of technology, economy, communication systems, infrastructure
and informatics. They have given rise, on the one hand, to a high degree
of inter-integrity and interdependence, and, on the other, to class-interest
separateness and oppositeness of the modern world.
The nature of those changes is massively determined by
the repercussions of the scientific-technological revolution which is perceived
as a technological, developmental, social and civilizational paradigm.
This is observable on the example of post-socialist societies whose trends
of development depend on the series of objective and subjective, internal
and international factors, as well as on the strategy of the global social
development. The attainment of the pattern of a modern pluralistic social-democratic
society requires from ex-realsocialist countries, as emphasized, a specific
democratic - political culture, consensus and social partnership of the
social protagonists, as well as a new developmental strategy aimed at modernization
and democratization.
The fourth chapter is an attempt to articulate theoretically
a demand for the constitution a sociology of sociology which would study
the development of sociology as a science and as a profession in the world.
The author presents his attitude that there is a need for a systematic
study of sociology, a study which would not be merely limited to the history
of the development of specific national and regional sociologies, but would
also include the current state and tendencies of their development, with
no intention to create a new academic discipline in a jagged system of
sociological sciences in an artificial manner. In that sense, sociology
of sociology should explore the social and gnoseologica determinants of
the 'emergence and development of national and regional sociologies, the
development of sociology as a science, vocation and profession", as well
as their role in the development of specific societies (p. 502). A critical
sociological examination of sociology would help towards a more comprehensive
understanding of the current state, problems, cross-roads and tendencies
in the development of the modern sociology, to our apprehension of the
function of sociology in the society and to the determination of its relationship
with other social protagonists.
Upon presenting this sketch of the contents of all four
chapters of the book, we draw your attention to a fact of high significance
for the text-book literature. Professor Mitrović specifies and defines
each concept which supposedly might cause misunderstandings. This enables
easier reading of the book, while the author's functional use of numerous
references provides opportunities for a better illustration of his attitudes.
Diversity and composition of the elaborated topics make this reading material
interesting to all the people who want to adopt systematic knowledge on
the relationship between sociology and society. The book "Sociology" of
Prof. Ljubiša Mitrović, being scientifically grounded, is a significant
contribution to the Yugoslav professional literature as well as a stimulus
to the reader's contemplation on the position and destiny of the present-day
sociology.
Dragan Todorović
