Kultury, civilizace, světový systém

This book presents current views on questions asked within historical sociology, and particularly the part of this field called “civilization analysis.” The key themes of this work are related to the concepts of civilization and culture, both in singular and in plural. The scholars follow different approaches, which have changed over time, defining the basic theoretical frameworks and research directions from an interdisciplinary perspective. Individual chapters present the development of discussions focusing on the content and mutual relations of the notions of civilization and culture, and introduce personalities who considerably influenced contemporary discourse on the civilization (Norbert Elias, Arnold J. Toynbee, Shmuel N. Eisenstadt), as well as some fashionable or less known scholars (Alvin Toffler, Alexandr S. Panarin). Considerable attention is paid to modernization, globalization, the World System, cultural differences, diversity of modernities and clashes between civilizations. The book also covers concepts of Immanuel Wallerstein, Göran Therborn, Francis Fukuyama and Samuel P. Huntington. The editors understand the project of civilization analysis not only as a specific research field but also as a path to the formulation of a new socio-historical paradigm.