MAN AND SOCIETY IN AN AGE
OF RECONSTRUCTION:
STUDIES IN MODERN SOCIAL
STRUCTUREThe Sociology of Karl Mannheim
K. Mannheim (1935) Ideology and Utopia: an Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul (new edition 1991).
K. Mannheim (1940) Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
K. Mannheim (1943) Diagnosis of our Time: Wartime Essays of a Sociologist. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
K. Mannheim (1951) Freedom, Power and Democratic Planning. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
K. Mannheim (1952) Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
K. Mannheim (1953) Essays on Sociology and Social Psychology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
K. Mannheim (1956) Essays on the Sociology of Culture. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul (new edition 1992).
K. Mannheim (1957) Systematic Sociology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
K. Mannheim and W. A. C. Stewart (1962) An Introduction to the Sociology of Education. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
K. Mannheim (1982) Structures of Thinking. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
K. Mannheim (1986) Conservatism: A Contribution to the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
MAN AND SOCIETY IN AN
AGE OF
RECONSTRUCTION:
STUDIES IN MODERN
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Collected Works Volume Two
Karl Mannheim
Translated by Edward Shils
First published in 1936
by Routledge
Reprinted 1997 (twice), 1999
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Transferred to Digital Printing 2007
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
1940 Karl Mannheim
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ISBN 0415144485 (set)
ISBN10: 0415136741 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0415436745 (pbk)
ISBN13: 9780415136747 (hbk)
ISBN13: 9780415436748 (pbk)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Necessity for a more thoroughgoing analysis of the social processes which led to the collapse of democracies. Are planning and freedom compatible?
Purpose of this bookto study these maladjustments in the spheres of personality formation and social organization. A transformation of society inconceivable without the transformation of human personality
The study of the sociological processes proper as contrasted with the purely economic ones, and their influence upon culture. Three cases exemplifying the technique of sociological analysis.
The problem of the scientific public and the typical defence mechanisms at work in it
must be stated anew: To what extent is history directed by rational forces; by irrational forces; and what is the scope for moral conduct in our world?
(1) the disproportionate development of human capacities; (2) the different scopes of action with their different tasks influence the development of rationality, irrationality, and morality in man; (3) modern society can no longer support this disproportion.
Two instances corroborating this statement:
(a) the principle of fundamental democratization;
(b) the principle of increasing interdependence.
, and the opposing forces which make dictatorship possible: the tendency for monopolizing the chances (a) of gaining insight into the real functioning of society; (b) of giving orders; (c) of applying force
Elasticity and rigidity in the capitalist system. Definite statement of our problem: can the social sources of the different forms of rationality be traced?
Substantial and functional forms of rationality and irrationality. Self-rationalization. Reflection. The functional rationalization of society as the most important source of self-rationalization and reflection
The appeal to the leader. The anxiety engendered by the obscurity with which the modern social order works. The liberal social order psychologically more favourable to substantial rationality
Mass impulses. Objections to a simplified mass psychology. The positive significance of irrationality. Social mechanisms which drive irrational impulses into the political sphere
Breadth of outlook and responsibility. The three stages in the rationalization of morality and the social process which brings them about: (1) horde-solidarity, (2) individual competition, (3) re-integration in large groups
The dual function of democracy. The dangers arising out of the psychological maladjustments in our time. Who should do the planning? Who plans the planner?
The antinomies of our social structure are also expressed in intellectual life. The three central theses of this study: Liberalism has a disintegrative influence on culture in modern mass society; the principle of dictatorial regulation is even more disastrous than the uncontrolled operation of the various forces; the mechanism of liberal society itself prepares the way for a dictatorial solution to its problems
The impact of unregulated social processes on the corresponding form of culture. The impact of regulated social processes on the form of culture
A. D ESCRIPTION OF THE S TRUCTURE OF C ULTURAL L IFE IN AN U NREGULATED ( LIBERAL ) S OCIETY . Formation of the lites. Formation of a public. Integration of the intelligentsia into society.
(a) The formation of the lites. The sociology of the intelligentsia. The function of lites. Four processes in forming lites which work negatively in liberal society in the age of mass-democracy (Processes of negative liberalism and negative democracy)
Results arising from it
The lack of leadership in late liberal mass society, and its causes. Why we have no contemporary style of art. Why the dictatorial groups meet no effective moral resistance
The three most important principles of selection: blood, property, and achievement. The principles of race and of achievement. The democratic forms of conferring privileges and their paradoxes
Autochthonous and mobile lites. Western civilization is largely a creation of the mobile lites. Christian and secular humanism. Symptoms of social regression. Reflections of social regression in the psychology of the individual
