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Nigel Thrift's Public Lecture: PASS IT ON: Towards a Political Economy of Propensity On 27th of March, 11:30 AM, Professor Nigel Thrift will deliver a public lecture PASS IT ON: Towards a Political Economy of Propensity at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences (Lecture Hall 237). Professor Nigel Thrift is the Vice-Chancellor of Warwick University and one of the leading authorities working at the intersection of human geography, sociology of space and sociology of everyday life. Russian readers are encouraged to acquaint themselves with the first chapter (The Legibility of the Everyday City) of his book Cities: Reimagining the Urban (2002, with Ash Amin, translated by Svetlana Bankovskaya) in Logos No 34 (2002). The lecture will be delivered in English. Non-MSSES visitors are invited to contact Yelena I. Voronkova for admittance passes to MSSES building at: levo [at] universitas.ru |
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Welcome!Dear Colleague!
We are happy to meet you in the Centre for Fundamental Sociology!
Make yourself comfortable and take a look around. Having foreseen your questions, we have placed some initial information here about who we are and what we do. Please feel free to visit our news page, where all information about our events and website updates is placed. You may find something new there. Found nothing? Don’t give up without trying later. The English version of our website is under development. Chances are that you will find something worthy here next time.
Who we are
The Centre for Fundamental Sociology (CFS) is a department of Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities (Russian acronym – IGITI) of State University – Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Since 2007 the Centre for Fundamental Sociology has carried out fundamental research and educational projects in social science.
What are our origins
CFS emerged in late 1990-s as a virtual research community united by a common interest in theoretical sociology and social philosophy. Support of Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, and of Canon-Press-C Publishing House and Open Society Institute Translation Program had made possible the publication of several book series and our electronic journal, the Sociological Review. For several years our publishing activity was interrupted and has recently been resumed in a different format under the auspices of other publishing houses. Covers of some of our publications from various years are placed at the top of our homepage. Presently we implement our research and publishing activities with support of SU-HSE and its Academic Fund.
Why «LEVIATHAN»
For a long time Leviathan was considered a symbol of infinite power. In eighteenth century Thomas Hobbes wrote his famous «Leviathan» where the foundations of modern social science were outlined. We have borrowed a fragment of the book’s frontispiece. The State – the Leviathan – is depicted as a man of enormous size, his body composed of many lesser people. He holds the symbols of secular and spiritual power in his hands. The quotation in Latin is taken from the biblical Book of Job: «There is nothing», saith He, «on earth to be compared with him». All human’s earthly doings are constituted in his coexistence in political unity with other people. Naturally, social thinkers often disagreed with Hobbes as his interpretation of social life as Leviathan-State seemed strange and doubtful to many of them. And yet, the heading and our website design are not just a formal recognition of a great forerunner. We are turning to Hobbes and remembering Leviathan because the book contains many accurate considerations about modern state, social life, and about why and how human acts.
How we work
What is a collective activity of theorists? Is it possible at all? Of course, it is theoretically possible, but there are no such examples in actual practice. In actual practice there are different people who have been able to discover a basis for mutual understanding in their work on the foundations of social science. This mutual understanding is expressed in the possibility for discussion, and exchange and critique of ideas. That is how conditions for development of theoretical knowledge are created. Its extent and success is a matter beyond our own judgment.
Our results
There are two types of observable results in science: either science as an institutionalized process, or publications. Our site contains our texts, bibliographic references, and reports of meetings and events. |
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