Time, Self and Social Being

The main object of this book is to present the theoretical outline of a temporalized sociology; that is, a sociology which both takes novelty as its starting point, and makes the link between the shorter and longer temporal spans. This temporalized sociology draws upon a variety of sources. Firstly, it builds on the legacy of four theoretical traditions: positivism, functionalism, structuralism and ethnomethodology. Although these four traditions are criticized for failing to take a temporalized perspective themselves, they yet offer a number of fruitful ideas and concepts which form the basis of this author's approach. The core of the argument for a secondary, but not umimportant, aim is to demonstrate the contemporary significance of G.H. Mead's writings. The discussion of his work is in two parts, one focusing on the self and knowledgeability, and another on the self and temporality. In both parts, first his ideas are presented, and then, without changing their underlying philosophy, amendments are suggested and new, related concepts are introduced. An attempt is made to harmonize those Meadian insights wth the relevant ideas from the four theoretical traditions mentioned above.
This means linking the shorter with the longer temporal spans, and integrating the Meadian concepts with problems related to social structure and unintended consequences. Finally, the author deals with differences and similarities between structuration theory and his temporalized sociology, and the relationship between history and sociology is analyzed from the temporalized perspective.