Blackwell Reference Online

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Talcott Parsons is a pivotal figure in the development of contemporary sociology. He defined what might be called a “high modernist” moment when sociological theory was attached to a collective project of disciplinary formation and was clearly demarcated from its “shadow,” social theory . This was a moment when it was believed that secure and consensual foundations for sociology could be established, distinguishing scientific from ideological or normative expressions. Increasingly since the 1950s, this idea of a foundational project has been under criticism and few have associated themselves with it, at least not in its Parsonian form. Yet, if its moment has passed, Parsons remains a significant figure, such that it makes sense to refer to contemporary sociological theory as post-Parsonian. His work has remained as a critical reference point for many subsequent theorists. As Jürgen Habermas put it, “any theoretical work in sociology today that failed to take account of Talcott Parsons could not be taken seriously” (1981: 174). While, for Bryan Turner, the seemingly radical critiques that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s represented merely “shifts in theoretical dialect rather than fundamental changes in discourse” (1986: 200). More recently, however, as we shall see, some more fundamental changes of discourse can be discerned. Parsons famously began his monumental work, The Structure ... log in or subscribe to read full text