Abstract

The book consists of a volume of essays in honor of the outstanding sociologist, Edward A. Tiryakian; whose work has spanned a considerable number of countries, regions and topics. He has been highly influential, particularly in American and French sociology.

Roland Robertson, one of the world’s leading global sociologists, is largely responsible for the development of global studies, as well as cosmic studies. His particular specialities are religion, culture, and theory.

John Simpson contributed to the theoretical and comparative analysis of the resurgence of religion and ethno-nationalism on a global scale following the Iranian Revolution and the transformation of the Soviet Union in the late twentieth century.

"Robertson and Simpson's masterful collection of essays in honor of the eminent sociologist Edward Tiryakian manages to paint a biographically fascinating and intellectually rich portrait of one of the earliest advocates of a truly global and transnational sociology. This book does full justice to the enormous topical range of Tiryakian's academic contributions."

—Manfred B. Steger, Professor of Sociology, University of Hawai'i-Manoa and Honorary Professor of Global Studies, RMIT University (Melbourne)

"Edward Tiryakian is a searching, iconoclastic theorist and empirical interpreter of modernity. He never loses sight of meaning, and his sensitivity to the sacred is profound. The contributions to this Festschrift do honor to a long and extraordinarily creative intellectual career."

—Jeffrey Alexander, Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology, Yale
University, USA

The book consists of a volume of essays in honor of the outstanding sociologist, Edward A. Tiryakian; whose work has spanned a considerable number of countries, regions and topics. He has been highly influential, particularly in American and French sociology.

The contributors include such luminaries as Alan Sica, Bryan Turner, George Ritzer, John Simpson, Piotr Sztompka, Hans Joas, Roland Robertson and John Torpey.

The contributions range across the numerous works of Tiryakian. These include his relationship with the great scholar Pitirim Sorokin, his existentialist sociology, metasociology, his contribution to modernization theory, his important work on civilizations, and his mediation between European and American sociology. Other contributions include chapters on global studies, Max Weber, multiple modernities and the axial age and the work of Robert Bellah on human evolution.