Journal of Classical Sociology

Following introductory remarks on Mills’s academic persona and current reputation, I pursue two lines of investigation. First, I analyze the deep structure of his thought, constituted by a pragmatist epistemology and a radical sociology, or ‘politics of truth.’ Then I argue that this structure is undermined by inconsistencies between its two components.

This article seeks to demonstrate that implicit within Weber’s writings on charisma are tools that can enable a processual, social constructionist understanding of charismatic formation. A corollary of this point is that Weber’s writings represent an historically crucial turning point in the progression from a Carlylian idea of leaders as inherently powerful to a non-essentialist, sociological perspective, and that Weber’s inspiration for this progression is best understood not through reference to his nineteenth-century forbearers in the social sciences, but rather in his contrast with the very few theological writers (namely Rudolph Sohm and the writers of the New Testament) who actually had employed charisma as a term prior to Weber’s famous appropriation of it. A reinterpretation and retranslation of Weber’s writings on charisma that gives priority to the social constructionist elements in his thought can provide tools for navigating through many of the interpretational controversies that have plagued charisma research.

The paper fills a gap in the discussion of The Religion of China by focusing on Weber’s treatment of Daoism. First, it presents an examination of Weber’s use of sources in his construction of Daoism and his location of mysticism and religion in the early Daoist text Daodejing. Second, his treatment of Daoism – and Confucianism – within the orthodox/heterodox framework is examined and shown to be a European projection inadequate for understanding Chinese state practices. Finally, it is shown that Weber’s approach prevents appreciation of the contribution of Daoist thought to a Chinese entrepreneurial spirit. By reformulating Weber’s argument concerning culture and economy, this important and neglected aspect of Daoism is highlighted.

This text follows closely a paper given in May 2007 to the third seminar, held at University College London, of an ESRC seminar series co-organized by the author, Nirmal Puwar (Goldsmiths College, University of London) and Azzedine Haddour (University College London) entitled ‘Pierre Bourdieu in Algeria: Testimonies of Uprooting’. The paper offers a preliminary discussion of Bourdieu’s analysis of Islam in his first book, Sociologie de l’Algérie (1958). It suggests that, as a young philosopher aspiring to undertake social anthropological or sociological research, he sought to reconcile the legacies of Durkheim and Weber. The methodology and conceptual apparatus deployed in this early text did not enable Bourdieu to appreciate the function for social agents of their religious practices and affiliations in a way which might have been possible for him in his later, ‘post-structuralist’ phase. As a ‘Research Note’, the text is reproduced so as to encourage further detailed study of Bourdieu’s work within the Algerian context and to suggest lines of inquiry in relation to his early intellectual formation.