Through the Past to the Future: From Georg Simmel and Max Weber to the Twenty-First Century’s Public Intellectuals

Based upon a close reading of the foundational works of Georg Simmel, Max Weber and the Frankfurt School as well as underexplored other works, Karner critically maps the conceptual approaches and theoretical insights of the German language sociological tradition onto various twenty-first-century social and political issues. Karner demonstrates that a revisiting of classical German-language sociology, combined with a critical engagement with more recent and current contributions, offers vital insights for a globally oriented political sociology for the present and future. In doing so, this book critically interrogates definitions of “the social”, questions of power, public spheres, cultural meanings, the historical particularities of the present, and sociologists’ public roles and responsibilities. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in the humanities and social sciences with an interest in classical social theory and political sociology.