Lewis A. Coser

Giriga institutioner tar sig an ett iögonfallande samhällsfenomen: sociala gemenskaper och organisationer som förväntar sig totalt engagemang och fullständig lojalitet av sina medlemmar. Lewis A. Coser visar hur denna mekanism har verkat i religiösa sekter och revolutionära partier, format livet för de rikas tjänstefolk, tvingat såväl katolska kyrkans präster som imperiernas soldater att leva i celibat. Andra gemenskaper, främst familjen, har hotat lojaliteten med den giriga institutionen. Men den moderna kärnfamiljen är också en "glupsk gemenskap", vars anspråk på tid och engagemang konkurrerar med de krav som det moderna arbetslivet ställer. Giriga institutioner (Greedy institutions) som ursprungligen publicerades 1974 är en föredömlig illustration av hur ett nytt teoretiskt perspektiv kan förklara en rad till synes disparata fenomen. I en nyskriven inledning presenterar sociologen Ola Agevall boken, författaren och hans tid.

Lewis A. Coser versucht in diesem Klassiker der modernen Sozialwissenschaften im Anschluß an Georg Simmels berühmter Untersuchung über den "Streit" den Begriff des sozialen Konfliktes zu klären und dessen empirische Anwendungsmöglichkeiten aufzuzeigen. Als eines der wichtigsten Bücher der neueren Konfliktforschung hat es in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts die in diesem Zusammenhang geführten theoretischen Kontroversen maßgeblich bestimmt und eine Vielzahl von empirischen Untersuchungen angeregt.

Lewis A. Coser takes readers from the coffeehouses of 18th-century London to the mass-culture industries of today in search of a definition for the intellectual.Describing the settings where intellectuals thrive and exploring the nature and contributions of various well-known groups, he discusses the various roles intellectuals play in society and why they matter.

What were the contributions to American scholarship and culture made by European refugees from Nazi persecution? How did these émigrés react to the experience of being strangers in the land of their refuge? In this engrossing book, Lewis Coser examines the impact of refugee intellectuals on the social sciences and the humanities in America, painting a collective portrait that sheds light not only on the accomplishments of the Europeans but also on the development of the several disciplines in America that either welcomed or rejected them.Coser explains, for example, why the émigrés had more influence in the field of psychoanalysis than in psychology; why Austrian economists were more successful in America than were German economists; why only a few European sociologists made significant contributions in America. Discussing such luminaries as Bruno Bettelheim, Jacob Marshak, Hannah Arendt, Thomas Mann, Vladimir Nabokov, Roman Jacobson, Erwin Panofsky, and Paul Tillich, Coser describes their backgrounds, personalities, and careers in America, providing revealing anecdotes that help to bring these figures to life. His accounts of those who were famous in the country of their birth but never achieved eminence or a feeling of adjustment in America provide a poignant contrast. Coser concludes that the refugee intellectuals were most influential in areas of study where they filled a perceived need not previously met or in fields where they could build on already established traditions. His perceptive analysis of the European-born men and women who altered American intellectual history is an absorbing and memorable story.

Lewis Coser presents an examination of the concept of social conflict and its use in empirical sociological research in this “lucid, comprehensive essay in social theory” (American Journal of Sociology).The positive values of conflict for all societies come to light in this study that reveals how conflicts fulfill social functions such as the maintenance of group boundaries and the prevention of the withdrawal of members of a group. Lewis Coser is critical of the view that conflict is dysfunctional and works to demonstrate its inadequacies. In a series of basic propositions distilled primarily from the theories of Georg Simmel, Coser clarifies the function of social conflict. Beyond this, Functions of Social Conflicts extends these propositions and relates them to psychoanalysis and empirical research theories.