Pragmatism and Democracy: Studies in History, Social Theory, and Progressive Politics

This volume examines the roots of pragmatist imagination and traces the influence of American pragmatism in diverse areas of politics, law, sociology, political science, and transitional studies. The work explores the interfaces between the Progressive movement in politics and American pragmatism. Shalin shows how early 20th century progressivism influenced pragmatismrs"s philosophical agenda and how pragmatists helped articulate a theory of progressive reform. The work addresses pragmatism and interactionist sociology and illuminates the cross-fertilization between these two fields of studies. Special emphasis is placed on the interactionistsrs" search for a logic of inquiry sensitive to the objective indeterminacy of the situation. The challenge that contemporary interactionist studies face is to illuminate the issues of power and inequality central to the political commitments of pragmatist philosophers. Shalin explores the vital link between democracy, civility, and affect. His central thesis is that democracy is an embodied process that binds affectively as well as rhetorically and that flourishes in places where civic discourse is an end in itself, a source of vitality and social creativity sustaining a democratic community. The author shows why civic discourse is hobbled by the civic body that has been misshapen by past abuses. Drawing on the studies of the civilizing process, Shalin speculates about the emotion, demeanor, and body language of democracy and explores from this angle the prospects for democratic transformation in countries struggling to shake their totalitarian past.Dmitri N. Shalin is professor of sociology and director of the Center for Democratic Culture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the author of numerous articles and the editor of several volumes including, The Social Health of Nevada: Leading Social Indicators and Quality of Life in the Silver State , Russian Culture at the Crossroads: Paradoxes of Postcommunist Consciousness , and Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goff man Archives.

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) is a central founder of the field of sociology. His stature in the discipline is comparable to that of his contemporaries Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Mead's contribution was a profound and unique American theory, one that analyzed society and the individual as social objects. As Mead saw it, both society and the individual emerged from cooperative, democratic processes linking the self, the other, and the community. In this volume Mary Jo Deegan, a leading scholar of Mead's work, traces the evolution of his thought in both its continuity and change. Her main purpose is to analyze and document the most controversial period of Mead's work, in which he addressed the topics of violence and the nation state.