Karl Mannheim and the Legacy of Max Weber: Retrieving a Research Programme(Rethinking Classical Sociology)

This book focuses on the important work of Karl Mannheim by demonstrating how his theoretical conception of a reflexive sociology took shape as a collaborative empirical research programme. The authors show how contemporary work along these lines can benefit from the insights of Mannheim and his students into both morphology and genealogy. It returns Mannheim's sociology of knowledge inquiries into the broader context of a wider project in historical and cultural sociology, whose promising development was disrupted and then partially obscured by the expulsion of Mannheim's intellectual generation. This inspired volume will appeal to sociologists concerned with the contemporary relevance of his work, and who are prepared for a fresh look at Weimar sociology and the legacy of Max Weber.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface; Introduction; The challenging context; Time and place; The social structure of advancement: education for life in the economy; The 'intensive study group' around Karl Mannheim; Norbert Elias and the sociology of external forms; Hans Gerthe and Hans Weil: the genealogy of the liberal Bildungselite; Käthe Truhel and the idea of a social bureaucracy; Nathalie Halperin and Margarete Freudenthal: the genealogy of women's movements; Jacob Katz: the sociology of the stranger I; Nina Rubinstein: sociology of the stranger II; Individual projects and orphans; The unfinished business between Karl Mannheim and Max Weber; Bibliography; Index.

About the Author :
David Kettler is Research Professor at Bard College and Professor Emeritus in Political Studies and Cultural Studies at Trent University. Recent book publications include 'Karl Mannheim and the Crisis of Liberalism' (with Volker Meja, 1995), 'Domestic Regimes, the Rule of Law, and Democratic Social Change' (2001), 'Adam Ferguson: Social and Political Thought' (2004) and 'Karl Mannheim's Sociology as Political Education' (with Colin Loader, 2002) Colin Loader is Professor of History at the University of Nevada, USA. Volker Meja is Professor of Sociology at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. St. John's, Canada. Recent book publications include 'Society and Knowledge: Contemporary Perspectives on the Sociology of Knowledge and Science' (2005) and 'The Sociology of Knowledge' (with N. Stehr, 1999). He is the editor with D. Kettler and N. Stehr of the previously unpublished German writings of Karl Mannheim, published in English as 'Structures of Thinking' (1982) and 'Conservatism' (1986). He has also authored 'Karl Mannheim and the Crisis of Liberalism' (with D. Kettler, 1995) and 'Modern German Sociology' (1987).

Review :
'A fascinating and scrupulously executed account of the research programme that Mannheim initiated with his advanced students at Frankfurt in the final years of the Weimar Republic. The authors uncover both sociological work and sociologists neglected in the literature, at the same time providing a stellar exemplar of what the intellectual history of the social sciences might be.' Guy Oakes, Monmouth University, USA 'No one knows Mannheim better, or has more persuasively documented his multi-dimensional greatness, than Volker Meja, David Kettler and Colin Loader. Their new work introduces readers to a network of scholars, many of whom are lost to history, whose lives were touched by Mannheim's personality and his sociology of knowledge. Read this marvellous book and discover a chapter in Weimar sociology that will surprise and inform you.' Peter Baehr, Lingnan University, Hong Kong 'The authors are to be thanked for creating a set of generational linkages - the Weber brothers, Karl Mannheim, Mannheim's students who became emigre academics in the USA and mentors of the next generation of sociologists - and actualizing the recurring dilemmas of the sociological intelligentsia. Place this book on third year reading lists.' Canadian Journal of Sociology 'The world of scholarship owes a large debt to the longstanding efforts of David Kettler and his associates Volker Meja and Colin Loader to deepen our understanding of the work of Karl Mannheim. In a series of books retrieving the intellectual and institutional contexts of Mannheim's sociology, and in the spectacular find of the full version of Mannheim's Conservatism manuscript, Kettler and company have done immense service in keeping Mannheim's work alive in Anglophone scholarship. If such a thing as "Mannheim Studies" could be said to exist, it is predominantly sustained by their prodigious exegetical and translation efforts.' Critical Sociology