The Moral Fabric in Contemporary Societies (Annals of the International Institute of Sociology. New Series, V. 9)

389 Pages·2003·1.51 MB·English

by  pola Institut International De Sociologie World Congress 2001 Krakow

THE MORAL FABRIC IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE
OF SOCIOLOGY
The International Institute of Sociology is the oldest continuous sociological
association in existence. It was founded in 1893 in Paris by René Worms. Early
distinguished members included scholars such as Max Weber, Lujo Brentano,
Enrico Ferri, Franklin Giddings, Ludwig Gumplowicz, Achille Loria, Alfred
Marshall, Carl Menger, Edward A. Ross, Gustav Schmoller, Georg Simmel,
Albion Small, Gabriel Tarde, Edward B. Tylor, Ferdinand Tönnies, Alexandre
Tchouprov, Thorstein Veblen, Lester Ward, Sidney and Beatrix Webb, and
Wilhelm Wundt.
Executive Board 1997-2002
President MasamichiSasaki (Japan)
Past President Erwin K. Scheuch ( Germany)
Vice Presidents EliezerBen-Rafael (Israel)
ElkeKoch-Weser(Italy)
GraîynaSkPapska (Poland)
Secretary General/ KarenS. Cook (U.S.A.)
Treasurer
Councillors Pierpaolo Donati (Italy)
Ulrike Schuerkens(Germany)
DavidSciulli(U.S.A.)
Jerzy J. Smolicz (Australia)
Michel Wieviorka (France)
Auditor EdgarF. Borgatta (U.S.A.)
THE ANNALS OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SOCIOLOGY
NEW SERIES – VOLUME 9
THE MORAL FABRIC IN
CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES
EDITED BY
GRA¢YNA SKPAPSKA
AND
ANNAMARIA ORLA-BUKOWSKA
WITH COLLABORATION OF
KRZYSZTOF KOWALSKI
BRILL
LEIDEN (cid:127)BOSTON
2003
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Institut international de sociologie. World Congress (35th : 2001 : Kraków, Poland)
The moral fabric in contemporary societies / edited by Graîyna SkPapska and Annamaria
Orla-Bukowska, with collaboration of Krzysztof Kowalski.
p. cm. — (The Annals of the International Institute of Sociology. New series : v. 9)
“Proceedings of the 35th Congress of the International Institute of Sociology, held in July
2001 in Kraków, Poland”—P..
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90-04-13114-0
1. Moral conditions—Congresses. 2. Social norms—Congresses. 3. Civilization,
Modern-21st century—Moral and ethical aspects—Congresses. 4. Civilization,
Modern-20th century—Moral and ethical aspects—Congresses. 5. Social
problems—Congresses. I. SkPapska, Graîyna. II. Orla-Bukowska, Annamaria. III.
Kowalski, Krzysztof, 1969—IV. Title. V. Series.
HM665.I57 2001
306—dc21
2003049649
ISSN 1568-1548
ISBN 90 04 13114 0
© Copyright 2003 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
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printed in the netherlands
CONTENTS
Gû S‰, Preface ........................................................ vii
SECTION ONE
THE MORAL FABRIC OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES:
TWO PERSPECTIVES
M S, Morality in Contemporary Society .......... 3
Gû S‰, The Moral Fabric in Contemporary
Societies: Some Remarks on the Paradigm Shift in
Sociological Theory ................................................................ 27
SECTION TWO
TRUST IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES
P S, Trust: A Cultural Resource ........................ 47
S E, Some Observations on Problems of Trust
in Modern Societies: Construction of Trust, Collective
Identity, and the Fragility and Continuity of Democratic
Regimes .................................................................................. 67
SECTION THREE
PROMISES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS:
EASTERN EUROPE AFTER COMMUNISM SEEN
FROM WITHOUT AND WITHIN
M K, Parables of Hope and Disappointment ...... 85
Jˆ ”, Everyday Democracy in the Czech
Republic: Disappointments or New Morals in a Time
of Neo-Normalization ............................................................ 93
E Z, The Genealogical Search Initiative
and Its Soviet Legacy ............................................................ 103
SECTION FOUR
DIVIDED WORLD—FACES OF INEQUALITIES
G T, Dimensions and Processes of Global
Inequalities .............................................................................. 119
vi 
P M, Postsocialist Transformations and
Various Faces of Inequalities in the Divided World .......... 143
SECTION FIVE
COPING WITH CORRUPTION
J K, Is a Sociology of Corruption Possible? .... 157
V F, The Paths of Italian Corruption ............ 165
M D, Trust-Mistrust in European Democracies .... 175
SECTION SIX
THE MORAL SENSE OF MODERNIZATION
S E, The Moral Dimensions and Tensions
of Modernity .......................................................................... 203
B W, The Cultural Constitution of
Modernity ................................................................................ 219
S A A, Modernity, Tradition and
the Shi'ite Reformation in Contemporary Iran .................. 241
S K, Literature and the Moral Imagination
of Modernity .......................................................................... 263
SECTION SEVEN
TERROR, GENOCIDE, AND VIOLENCE
E B-R, The De-Civilizing Process .................... 283
K D, “Women, Children, Older People”:
Genocide, Warfare, and the Functional Differentiation of
Society .................................................................................... 291
N R, Society as a “Morality-Silencing” Force:
Primo Levi, Existential Power, and the
Concentration Camp .............................................................. 309
N C, Answers to Atrocities ...................................... 335
AFTERWORD
K K and A O-B, The
Moral Fabric: Diverse Textures in the Postmodern World 357
List of Editors and Contributors .............................................. 375
PREFACE
This book presents the proceedings of the 35th Congress of the
International Institute of Sociology, held in July 2001 in Kraków,
Poland. The Congress title as well as its location were not accidental,
and its timing was symbolic. It was held at the beginning of the new
millennium in a country that had experienced in the twentieth century
the most atrocious crimes against humanity and two totalitarianisms.
The first is symbolized by nearby Auschwitz, and as a result of the
second the country is currently experiencing an overwhelming and
difficult transformation—political, economic and social. The entire
region has witnessed the collapse of a system believed to liberate
society from poverty and people from their vices, but which instead
brought economic and social disaster, and resulted in some, insufficiently
diagnosed yet, social deformations and pathologies. Last but not least,
the Congress was focused on the universal, most burning social issue:
the moral fabric in contemporary societies, the worldviews, norms,
values, beliefs and institutions that hold them together, and that
reflect their convictions about the “good society” and its enemies.
The 35th IIS Congress program was based on an important the-
oretical conviction. As we currently realize, the beginning of a new
millennium throws new light on naive, and indeed quite droll ideas
about the “end of the history,” and the victory of some simplistic
versions of liberalism. The very first years of this millennium prove
the suspicion that history is neither the accomplice of utopia, nor
does it necessarily evolve in a liberal direction. As a matter of fact,
this initial period indicates that history cannot go anywhere unless
the societies who are its agents have goals or visions which they
believe worth following. Such an observation is especially true in
Poland, or in Eastern Europe more generally, where society has proved
to be the agent of history indeed, and entirely unexpectedly—at least
entirely unexpected by the dominant social and political theories—
changed its trajectory.
Thus, the program of this Congress, and the contents of this book
reflect the deep convictions of Eastern European social thinkers and
political figures of such format as Vaclav Havel or Jir˘i Patoka in
the Czech Republic, Georgy Konrad in Hungary, and many other
SKAPSKA_f1_prelims 6/24/03 2:14 PM Page viii
viii 
Eastern European intellectuals that social theory could have a moral
foundation and transformative potential, being simultaneously rooted
in the real social experiences and life-worlds that give it its most
important accountability. The works of the above-mentioned authors
heralded a great revival of interest in morality and ethics, in sharp
contrast with the end-of-the-century, end-of-the-millennium decadent
social philosophies of post modernism, and deconstructivism—the
reduction of human communications to language games, social order
to “normalization,” and society and its institutions to a system which
acts according to its own rules and turns people into its marionettes.
This book comprises papers that provide the best evidence of just
such a strong conviction of the importance of moral issues for the
social sciences. These papers were presented at the Congress ple-
nary and podium sessions and discussed during its debates. Thus,
the contents of this volume delve into the issues promoting the “good
society” project and reflecting the greatest menace to it—all per-
ceived from the current, global perspective. The deliberations open
with the notion of trust as a foundation of social order, and pro-
ceed with the burning issue of economic inequalities in the con-
temporary world. Multiple modernities are here discussed as a crucial
theoretical answer to simplistic concepts of social development that
advocated some culture-less and history-less version of moderniza-
tion imposed “from above,” or rather, “from outside,” notwithstanding
local cultures and traditions. Also included herein are two debates
on the contemporary issues of moral relevance: one devoted to post-
communism, the other to corruption. Finally, one of the four ple-
nary sessions of the 35th IIS Congress was focused on genocide—the
ultimate denial of the “good society” project.
The success of the 35th Congress of the International Institute of Socio-
logy was due to the efforts of many people and institutions—first
and foremost, to the efforts of the then President of the International
Institute of Sociology, Professor Masamichi Sasaki; the Local Organizing
Committee—especially to Dr. Annamaria Orla-Bukowska and Dr.
Krzysztof Kowalski—and the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian
University in Kraków, Poland. We are very grateful for the generous
sponsorship of the Vice-Rector of the Jagiellonian University, Professor
Maria Nowakowska, and to the World Bank Office in Poland. The
publication of this book has been made possible through the financial
SKAPSKA_f1_prelims 6/24/03 2:14 PM Page ix
 ix
support of the World Bank Office in Poland, the International Institute
of Sociology, the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University,
and Professor Masamichi Sasaki.
Graûyna Sk[pska
Vice-President of the International Institute of Sociology
Chairperson of the Local Organizing Committee