Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory
- The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The Emergence of Social Theory
- 2 “What Is a Classic?”
- 3 Karl Marx
- 4 The Marxist Legacy
- 5 Émile Durkheim: Theorist of Solidarity
- 6 What’s in a Name?
- 7 Max Weber
- 8 Weberian Social Theory
- 9 Georg Simmel and the Metropolitization of Social Life
- 10 Pounding on Parsons: How Criticism Undermined the Reputation of Sociology’s Incurable Theorist
- 11 Symbolic Interactionism
- 12 Erving Goffman and Dramaturgical Sociology
- 13 Structuralism
- 14 Norbert Elias, Civilising Processes, and Figurational (or Process) Sociology
- 15 Phenomenology and Social Theory
- 16 Pierre Bourdieu: An Intellectual Legacy
- 17 Developing Ethnomethodology: Garfinkel on the Constitutive Interactional Practices in Social Systems of Interaction
- 18 Jürgen Habermas
- 19 Anthony Giddens, Structuration Theory, and Radical Politics
- Index
- References
9 - Georg Simmel and the Metropolitization of Social Life
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2020
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory
- The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The Emergence of Social Theory
- 2 “What Is a Classic?”
- 3 Karl Marx
- 4 The Marxist Legacy
- 5 Émile Durkheim: Theorist of Solidarity
- 6 What’s in a Name?
- 7 Max Weber
- 8 Weberian Social Theory
- 9 Georg Simmel and the Metropolitization of Social Life
- 10 Pounding on Parsons: How Criticism Undermined the Reputation of Sociology’s Incurable Theorist
- 11 Symbolic Interactionism
- 12 Erving Goffman and Dramaturgical Sociology
- 13 Structuralism
- 14 Norbert Elias, Civilising Processes, and Figurational (or Process) Sociology
- 15 Phenomenology and Social Theory
- 16 Pierre Bourdieu: An Intellectual Legacy
- 17 Developing Ethnomethodology: Garfinkel on the Constitutive Interactional Practices in Social Systems of Interaction
- 18 Jürgen Habermas
- 19 Anthony Giddens, Structuration Theory, and Radical Politics
- Index
- References
Summary
Simmel’s focus on individuality in ambivalent interaction within the context of the metropolis constitutes a central feature of his contribution to sociology. He was not inclined to issue laments about the presumed end of the individual due to modern forms of domination; rather his work focuses on the possibilities for individual action in modern societies predicated on novel cultural values. This article illustrates that it is essential to view his work in terms of the dialectics between work and play, as well as that between the realms of necessity and leisure.
Vincenzo Mele is Associate Professor of General Sociology in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pisa. He is the author of Metropolis: Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, and Modernity (2011), Aesthetics and Social Theory: Simmel, Benjamin, Adorno, Bourdieu (2013), and Globalizing Cultures: Theories, Actions, Paradigms (with Marina Vujnovic, 2015). He is editor of the journal Simmel Studies.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory , pp. 161 - 178Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
References
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Further Reading
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