Reflexivity as a Principle and Problem in Social Theory

This sketch presents important conceptions of reflectivity - including those of Anthony Giddens and Niklas Luhmann - as well as the developmental stages of the new interest in reflectivity, as opposed to reflection, on the grounds of sociology, and through sociology - in other social sciences as well. Subsequently, attention is drawn to radical reflectivity. Social theory based on the latter is a praxis theory, formulating opinions and beliefs, the propagation of which should lead to their confirmation as a result of their reflexive influence on social reality. Reflectivity is also a principle of relational social epistemology, which implies the necessity of analyzing various relational dimensions of the subject, as well as knowledge understood as a social process. The principle of radical reflectivity leads to pursuit of social theory as a multidimensional criticism of forms of knowledge and models of thinking about the world hitherto existing in European culture. In this search for critical distance, theology has also drawn the interest of reflective social theory

Symbolic politics of public time and collective memory. The Polish case

Symbolic construction of the state identity is analysed, along with the symbolic politics of the state toward the past. The great systemic change is conceived as a symbolic transformation where the growth of semiotic behaviour is clearly noticeable. The analysis deals with the changes in the public holidays calendar in Poland: the communist symbolic strategies, symbolic politics of the Solidarity movement and the anti-politics of symbolization in the third Republic of Poland. It discusses problems of the symbolic control of historicity.

Florian Znaniecki - An Unrecognized Forerunner of Symbolic Interactionism

Florian Znaniecki hat in der soziologischen Fachwelt vor allem als Verfasser (oder Mitverfasser) solcher Studien wie 'The Polish Peasant in Europe and America' oder 'The social Role of the Man of Knowledge' seinen Platz. Jedoch erweckte das von ihm geschaffene originelle theoretische System, an dem sich seine Werke selbstverständlich ausrichten, bisher nicht das nötige Interesse. Eine genaue Analyse seiner Schriften zeigt, daß man Znaniecki als einen Vorläufer des Symbolischen Interaktionismus betrachten muß. Er verstand die sozialen Sinndeutungen alltäglichen Handelns als von den Teilnehmern interpretierte und von ihnen entsprechend konstituierte Interaktionen. Znanieckis Konzeption der Interpretation des sinnverstehenden Handelns ist im Grundsatz des 'humanistischen Koeffizienten' verankert. Deshalb verlangt Znanieckis weiterführende Konzeption der 'axionormativen Ordnung' eine tiefergehende Untersuchung von diesem Grundsatz aus.