Classical Sociology Beyond Methodological Nationalism defends classical sociology from the accusation of ‘methodological nationalism’. To reject such accusation, the volume presents three arguments. The first contends that classical sociology has not failed to deal with the global world (Part I). The second, that classical sociology has more frequently dealt with the transnational category of the ‘social’, rather than with the ‘national’ (Part II). The third, that where classical sociology has analysed national society, the latter has never been envisaged as a rigidly confined entity within its political boundaries (Part III). The outcome is a re-evaluation of classical sociological thought as a more functional tool for analysing the political forms of modernity in the era of globalisation. Contributors include: Vittorio Cotesta, David Inglis, Austin Harrington, Massimo Pendenza, Michael Schillmeier, Emanuela Susca, Dario Verderame, and Federico Trocini.

A Social Theory of the Nation-State construes a novel and original social theory of the nation-state. It rejects nationalistic ways of thinking that take the nation-state for granted as much as globalist orthodoxy that speaks of its current and definitive decline.

A Social Theory of the Nation-State: the political forms of modernity beyond methodological nationalism, construes a novel and original social theory of the nation-state. It rejects nationalistic ways of thinking that take the nation-state for granted as much as globalist orthodoxy that speaks of its current and definitive decline. Its main aim is therefore to provide a renovated account of the nation-state’s historical development and recent global challenges via an analysis of the writings of key social theorists. This reconstruction of the history of the nation-state into three periods: classical (K. Marx, M. Weber, E. Durkheim) modernist (T. Parsons, R. Aron, R. Bendix, B. Moore) contemporary (M. Mann, E. Hobsbawm, U. Beck, M. Castells, N. Luhmann, J. Habermas) For each phase, it introduces social theory’s key views about the nation-state, its past, present and future. In so doing this book rejects methodological nationalism, the claim that the nation-state is the necessary representation of the modern society, because it misrepresents the nation-state’s own problematic trajectory in modernity. And methodological nationalism is also rejected because it is unable to capture the richness of social theory’s intellectual canon. Instead, via a strong conception of society and a subtler notion of the nation-state, A Social Theory of the Nation-State tries to account for the ‘opacity of the nation-state in modernity’.

Cross-border studies have become attractive for a number of fields, including international migration, studies of material and cultural globalization, and history. While cross-border studies have expanded, the critique on nation-centered research lens has also grown. This book revisits drawbacks of methodological nationalism in theory and methodological strategies. It summarizes research methodologies of the current studies on transnationalization and globalization, such as multi-scalar and transnational approaches, global and multi-sited ethnography, as well as the entangled history approach and the incorporating comparison approach. This collected volume goes beyond rhetorical criticism on methodological nationalism, which is mainly associated with the ignorance and naturalization of national categories. It proffers insights for the systematic implementation of novel research strategies within empirical studies deployed by young and senior scholars. The novelty lies in an interdisciplinary lens ranging from sociology, social anthropology and history.

Sociology for Durkheim was by no means a knowledge closed in its specificity. It was rather an open science, permeable to contributions coming from other disciplines. For him, the task of sociology was to study what held societies together, giving place to reflective change and progressive development. This is an epistemological and political model that still retains all its relevance today: an example to be rediscovered against any reductionist conception of the vocation and object of social sciences; an encouragement to see sociology as an indispensable protagonist for an authentic interdisciplinary dialogue in the field of humanities. It is one of the best legacies Durkheim left us, that this book attempts to illustrate.

For Durkheim sociology was not a form of knowledge closed in its specificity, nor an instrument for social order: it was an open science, aiming at promoting reflective change and the progressive development of society.

While each chapter seizes the dialectic of enlightenment and counter-enlightenment at work in the global world, the volume insists on the moral, intellectual, structural, and historical resources that still make cosmopolitanism a real possibility even in these hard times.