Abstract
Exploring new frontiers of sociology does not mean extending existing theories and methods but rather interrogating some of its uncritically accepted modernist assumptions, such as the equating of society and nation-state, the dualism of individual and society and that of ontology and epistemology. Beyond Sociology explores pathways in which we go beyond sociology in terms of exploring the contours of a transformational sociology; this seeks to transform the assumptions of conventional sociological theorizing and practice as well as modes of sociological imagination. Despite all the waters that have flowed around the world for the last 150 years, contemporary sociology, even so-called global sociology, suffers from what Ulrich Beck called the NATO-like firepower of Western sociology. In this context, sociology has to open itself to transcivilizational dialogues and planetary conversations about the very themes of thinking about self, culture and society. So far, globalization of sociology has meant globalization of themes and methods of modernist sociology, which makes an easy equation between sociology and modernity. For sociologists such as Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and André Béteille, sociology is a modern discipline and is post-traditional. But if sociology blindly follows the post-traditional teleology of modernity, how can it study varieties of forms of life—traditional, modern, postmodern and transmodern? These varieties of forms of life exist not only in the so-called traditional societies such as India or Lapland but in all contemporary societies—whether India, Indonesia, Sweden, France, Britain, Germany, Singapore, China or the USA. Beyond Sociology thus initially challenges us to go beyond an a priori teleological privileging of the post-traditional telos of modernist sociology. It invites us to make a foundational interrogation of modernist sociology as a prelude to making sociology part of a planetary conversation about the very themes such as society and individual that it seeks to understand.
Notes
- 1.
In conventional classification of our world we are used to categories of traditional, modern and postmodern, but Enrique Dussel (2017) here challenges us to realize the significance of an emergent transmodern condition where we are not slaves of either tradition or modernity nor ahistorical children of a postmodern world but live creatively in our present-day world, building upon critical and transformative resources from all sources through creative memory work. To this memory work I add the dynamics of memory meditation. I share my following poem as a way of reimagining our condition as cross-fertilization of roots and routes through memory work and memory meditation:
Verse
Verse Roots and Routes: Memory Work, Meditation and Planetary Realizations 1 Roots and Routes Routes within Roots Roots with Routes Multiple Roots and Multiple Routes Crisscrossing With Love Care, Chung and Karuna Crisscrossing and Cross-firing 2 Root work and Route Work Footwork and Memory Work Weaving threads Amidst threats Dancing in front of terror Dancing with terrorists Meditating with threats Meditating with threads Meditating with Roots and Routes Root Meditation Route Meditation Memory Work as Meditating with Earth Dancing with Soul, Cultures and Cosmos [UNPAR Guest House, Bandung, Feb. 13, 2015 9 a.m.; updated in Guwahati on July 8, 2015 for the International Conference on Asian Values and Human Futures, Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati, July 7–9, 2015].
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Giri, A.K. (2018). Beyond Sociology: An Introduction and An Invitation. In: Giri, A. (eds) Beyond Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6641-2_1
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