Abstracts
Abstract
In the following pages I hope to transfer my enthusiasm for the sociology of Georg Simmel to my readers. My hope is powered by something of a calling to pass on the message so central his writing and thinking that it can be condensed into one simple statement: Using his approach to culture, politics, and society translates the statement “you are wrong!” to “I see, that is how you look at it!” Thus, the blunt definition of the other person as being in error becomes an acknowledgment of a new insight. Based largely on Simmel's original writings an overall view of his approach, I try to present empowering the reader how topical his thinking is in light of some alarming social and political developments world wide in society today. This simple conversion from one view of a difference of opinion to another has an obvious potential of conflict reduction, and that is why it is “advertised” here.
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Appendices
Biographical note
Horst Jürgen Helle is currently Professor Emeritus at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Munich, Germany. Helle's work is mainly concerned with Symbolic Interactionism since Herbert Blumer and the evolution of the so-called 'Verstehen' tradition of interpretive sociology. Helle has specifically looked at the path taken by European sociology in its tension between positivism and neo-Kantianism since the writing of Georg Simmel. He connects this tradition to Blumer's indebtedness to George Herbert Mead. In this theoretical continuity Helle also discusses the work of Anselm Strauss, Tamotsu Shibutani and, particularly, Erving Goffman. Most of Helle’s substantive work has centered on cultural change, religion, the family, and recently mainland China. His last book is Refugees, Religions, and Social Change: Essays on China and the Failing West, Munich, 2019.
Bibliography
- Barbano F. (1998), in Tomasi, Luigi (ed.): The Tradition of the Chicago School of Sociology, England. Abington: Ashgate Publishing Limited, pp. 37-45.
- Helle H. J. (2008). “Soziologie der Konkurrenz – Sociology of Competition”, in: Canadian Journal of Sociology – Cahier Canadiens de Sociologie, 33 (4), pp. 945-978.
- Helle H. J. (2019). “From Simmel’s Stranger to Today’s Refugees”, in Ders., Refugees, Religions, and Social Change. Essays on China and the Failing West. Amazon.com self-publishing: München 2019, p. 17ff.
- Helle H. J. (1985). ”Ausländische Arbeitnehmer“ Spalten 425-427, in Staatslexikon der Görres-Gesellschaft, 7. Auflg., Bd. 1, Freiburg i.Br.: Herder.
- Helle H. J. (2019). “The Death of Jesus as Crucial Difference between Islam and Christianity – Reflections on the Sociology of Religion”, in Ders., Refugees, Religions, and Social Change. Essays on China and the Failing West. Amazon.com self-publishing: München 2019, pp. 99-108.
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- Simmel G. (1903). ”Soziologie der Konkurrenz“, in Neue Deutsche Rundschau, n° 14. 1903, pp.1009-1023.
- Simmel G. (1908). ”Exkurs über den Fremden“, in Ders., Soziologie. Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftun,. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp.685-691. Neudruck in Georg Simmel - Gesamtausgabe, Herausgegeben von Otthein Rammstedt, Bd. 11, 1992, pp.764-771.