Jeffrey Alexander and Cultural Sociology

This book presents the first comprehensive and critical account of Jeffrey Alexander’s cultural sociology. Alexander has proposed a “strong program” in cultural sociology that analyses the cultural pragmatics of social performance. His hermeneutical approach connects meaningful political action with deeper symbolic structures of social life. Rooted in a rereading of classical sociology, Alexander’s cultural sociology focuses on the aesthetics of political expressions and their relation to the civil sphere. His highly original account of the civil sphere, as an institutionalized domain that is shaped by the discourse of liberty and solidarity and that sustains universalizing cultural aspirations, provides an illuminating perspective on how democracy functions, and fails to function, in contemporary societies. This book charts the development of Alexander’s thought in all its complexity. Through its critical readings, the book also opens up a dialogue with other contemporary approaches in sociology, situating Alexander’s work in relation to others and highlighting alternative views that challenge his ideas. The book offers both a critical introduction and a deepening of different aspects of the cultural sociology developed by Alexander. It is the first work of its kind.