Jonathan Turner

University of California, Riverside | UCR · Department of Sociology

The main goal of this chapter is to begin developing a general theory of inter-societal dynamics by conceptualizing the fundamental properties of human societies: (1) social structures, (2) cultural structures, and (3) infrastructures. Social structures refer to systems of institutions and stratification that constitute the foundation of human soci...

This chapter discusses important theoretical perspectives of inter-societal systems for creating a general theory of inter-societal dynamics. Based on the early work of Herbert Spencer and Ibin Khaldun, geo-political dynamics were fundamental forces in human societal evolution and the development of inter-societal systems. Contemporary theoretical...

This chapter provides a general theory of geo-economic dynamics in pre-modern and modern inter-societal systems. The economy is constituted of seven general properties: (1) technology; (2) physical capital; (3) human capital; (4) transactional capital; (5) property; (6) structural formations; and (7) cultural formations. This reconceptualization of...

This chapter reviews the most prominent perspective of inter-societal systems in sociological theory—world-systems analysis. This chapter discusses the theoretical origins of the perspective with the work of Immanuel Wallerstein and how this perspective emerged from dependence theory and classical theories of imperialism. The chapter outlines a ser...

This chapter provides a general theory of geo-political dynamics in inter-societal systems. An important internal dynamic driving geo-political relation is the evolution of the polity and the consolidation and centralization of four bases of power: (1) coercive, (2) administrative, (3) symbolic, and (4) incentive. The consolidation and centralizati...

This chapter discusses a general theory of geo-cultural dynamics in inter-societal systems. As discussed in previous chapters, a significant critique of prior theories and perspectives of inter-societal systems is the omission of geo-cultural dynamics and formations. Drawing on the world-society perspective, the chapter discusses the fundamental dr...

This chapter discusses an approach for developing scientific and explanatory theories of the social universe. Specifically, a scientific approach to sociological theorizing requires developing abstract theoretical models and propositions that emphasize the generic and fundamental properties of social systems. Accordingly, the chapter provides an ov...

Im Vorwort und im zweiten Kapitel von Social Commitments in a Depersonalized World machen Edward J. Lawler, Shane R. Thye und Jeongkoo Yoon deutlich, dass sie sich den großen Themen widmen wollen, die sowohl von so frühen Soziologen wie Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels (1969, 1959), Max (Weber,.Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Mohr, Tübingen, 1972) und G...

This volume concerns emotional development and includes contributions from leading experts in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, sociology, primatology, philosophy, history, cognitive science, computer science, and education. This is the first volume of its kind to include such a multidisciplinary group of experts to consider emotional develop...

Using cladistic analysis and comparative neurology, the evolution of humans’ unique capacities to be so emotional is analyzed in this chapter. Humans are, in essence, evolved great apes who, contrary to much popular opinion, are not highly social, do not form permanent groups, do not live in nuclear families, and in general, are not highly organize...

This article offers a critical reply to Leonardo Ambasciano’s commentary on our volume (Turner et al. 2018) available in this same issue of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography.

Jonathan H. Turner is the Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Riverside and, for many decades, the world’s leading authority on sociological theory, with research interests in many other areas such as human and societal evolution, social stratification and inequality, philosophy of science, and historical sociolo...

Research over the past decades has demonstrated the explanatory power of emotions, feelings, motivations, moods, and other affective processes when trying to understand and predict how we think and behave. In this consensus article, we ask: has the increasingly recognized impact of affective phenomena ushered in a new era, the era of affectivism?

In sociology’s formative period between 1830 and 1930, evolutionary analysis organized much theorizing and research. This line of work ended abruptly in the 1920s but, over the last decades, has come back into the discipline somewhat piecemeal with the reintroduction of more sophisticated stage models of societal evolution, functional analysis, hum...

A general set of theoretical principles on geo-dynamics is developed. This line of emphasis follows from a critique of current theories of globalization as emphasizing geo-economics over geo-politics and as positing a rather ideologically driven view of the future of globalism toward a world-level polity and socialism. In contrast, this chapter arg...

The Romans coined the word incestrum to denote forbidden sexual unions but they borrowed from the Greeks much of the rich imagery of incest that found its way into Roman myths and narratives. These early efforts anticipated some of the dynamics to be developed much later in more scientific explanations. For example, the Greek tragedy of Oedipus Rex...

The long-standing divide between sociology as an activist discipline vs. sociology as a science is examined in light of the current trend for American sociology focus on a limited set of justice issues resulting from inequalities and discrimination against certain categories of persons. Increasingly, this trend is pushing sociology toward become an...

Despite long-standing prejudices against doing so, it is time for sociology to reconnect with its roots in biological and evolutionary thinking. Sociology emerged as a discipline when the notion of evolution was actively used in biology, geology, and emerging social sciences. Throughout the nineteenth century, many of the most prominent early Europ...

E.O. Wilson’s Genesis: The Deep Origins of Societies is one of a series of short books where the author has tried to explain human societies using ideas and concepts from biology. While Wilson is to be lauded for his recent efforts to reintroduce the notions of group selection and multilevel selection, he still sustains an emphasis on only Darwinia...

Anthropology and sociology have long been fascinated with incest and the origin of the incest taboo. Incest refers to any illicit sexual act, whereas the incest taboo refers to a “thou shalt not” have sexual relations with offspring within the nuclear family, though in many traditional societies the taboo is extended to a broader kinship network. I...

In this chapter, a new theorisation of emotional valence is proposed that addresses limitations in existing conceptualisations of valence in various disciplinary fields including psychology, sociology, philosophy, and education. Origins of the valance concept are canvassed and critiqued before an more comprehensive and detailed theorisation is offe...

For decades, evolutionary analysis was overlooked or altogether ignored by sociologists. Fears and biases persisted nearly a century after Comte Auguste gave the discipline its name, as did concerns that its effect would only reduce sociology to another discipline - whether biology, psychology, or economics. Worse, apprehension that the application...