Beyond Sociology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Beyond Sociology: An Introduction and An Invitation

   • Ananta Kumar Giri

   Pages 1-10

3. The Concept of Society: Beyond the Socio-Centric and Atman-Centric Predicament

   • Daya Krishna

   Pages 11-27

4. Beyond Sociology: Cultivating an Ontological Epistemology of Participation

   • Ananta Kumar Giri

   Pages 29-51

5. Deep Sociology

   • John Clammer

   Pages 53-69

6. Inferential Dialectics: On Dialectical Reasoning in Critical Social Science and the Socio-Cultural World

   • Piet Strydom

   Pages 71-92

7. Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action: From Discourse Ethics to Spiritual Transformations

   • Ananta Kumar Giri

   Pages 93-121

8. Beyond Sociology: Mysticism and Society

   • Philip Wexler

   Pages 123-144

9. Confucian Self-Transformation as an Alternative Sociology: Meaningful Action vs. Performance with Differential Profundity

   • Wei-Hsu Lu

   Pages 145-171

10. Structure, Agency and Victimization: On the Ethics of Scientific Writing

    • Gudrun Dahl

    Pages 173-191

11. With and Beyond Plurality of Standpoints: Sociology and the Sadhana of Multi-Valued Logic and Living

    • Ananta Kumar Giri

    Pages 193-220

12. Afterword: Beyond a Materialist Sociology

    • Marcus Bussey

    Pages 221-224

13. Back Matter

    Pages 225-228

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This book explores the contours of a transformational sociology which seeks to reconsider the horizons of sociological imagination. It questions accepted modernist assumptions such as the equation of society and nation-state, the dualism of individual and society and that of ontology and epistemology.  Arguing that contemporary sociology suffers from what Ulrich Beck calls the Nato-like fire power of western sociology, it argues that sociology has to open itself to transcivilizational dialogues and planetary conversations about self, culture and society. The book also challenges scholars to go beyond a privileging of the post-traditional telos of modernist sociology and puts forward a foundational interrogation of modernist sociology. It underscores the limitations of established conventions of sociology and considering an alternative sociology based upon Confucian vision and practice of self-transformation. This collection offers a way to go beyond dominant structures of modern sociology and contemporary dominant ways of thinking about and doing sociology helping us cultivate a transdisciplinary sociology.

• Cognitive Social Science Beyond Sociology
• Confucian Self-Transformation as an Alternative Sociology
• Sociology of Commerce and Industry
• Transformational Sociology
• Western Sociology and Power
• Dominant Structures of Modern Sociology
• Ethics of Scientific Writing

• Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India

  Ananta Kumar Giri

Ananta Kumar Giri is a Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India. He has taught and done research at universities in India and abroad, including Aalborg University in Denmark, the University of Kentucky, USA, the University of Freiburg & Humboldt University, Germany and Jagiellonian University in Poland. His research focuses on social movements and cultural change, creativity and contemporary dialectics of transformation, theories of self, culture and society, and creative streams in education, philosophy and literature. 

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