Editor’s Afterword: The Strong Program in Cultural Sociology: Commentaries on Theory, Methodology, and History

Abstract

The paper summarizes development of the special issue and provides framework for perception of broadening project of cultural sociology with special emphasis on the “strong program.” The paper’s basic issues embrace historical context of the program’s development, its crucial points in theory, overview of main research areas, analysis of key methodological means and our own suggestions concerning ways of the program’s improvement. The peculiarities of Russian translations and reception of the terms used in the strong program are also discussed. The paper proceeds from the assumption that Durkheimian sociology is the most promising ground for cultural sociology in theory as well as in methodology. That is why it reconstructs the main argument of cultural sociology with special regard to Durkheim’s theory of sacred and his heuristic hypothesis on collective emotions. The “effervescence” as well as other models that are closely connected with the sacred use to assert causal power of the meaning and hence to insure performing the prime task of the program which is to obtain autonomy of culture in sociological way. In terms of methodology those models inform cultural sociology with the most relevant and demanded means of explanations. Finally the paper suggests current misinterpretations of the concept of the sacred and outlines how its overcoming can reinforce the overall explanatory power of the program.