Integrating and disintegrating dynamics in human societies
pp. 19-41
in: Seth Abrutyn (ed), Handbook of contemporary sociological theory, Berlin, Springer, 2016Abstract
Integration and disintegration of societies occurs at three fundamental levels of social organization: the micro, meso, and macro. Each level reveals it own operative dynamics and sociocultural formations, but equally important are the connections across levels. In this chapter, I explore the mechanisms of integration and, its converse, disintegration at each level, but emphasize the connections of social structures and their cultures across all three levels. The goal is to develop a more robust conception of the fundamental dynamics by which societies are held together, for a time, as well as the forces causing their disintegration. Implied in this analysis is a general theory that can be formalized. This theory, itself, is integrative because it seeks to bring together elements from many diverse theoretical approaches.