Strong Program in Cultural Sociology

Abstract

In the paper, which pretends to be a program manifesto, its authors justify a necessity of the new theoretical approach to culture which they call a “strong program” in sociology of culture. While the existing sociological approaches to culture (“weak programs”) bear a reductionist character, the “strong program” treats culture in terms of its autonomy. After a general review of the sociological conceptions of culture authors analyze the most significant approaches within the “weak program.” In the core section of the paper they discuss the required steps that will make a “strong program” possible on the grounds of synthesis of structuralism and hermeneutics.