We Still Read Parsons Today

Several decades after the storm that shook Talcott Parsons’s General Theory of Action had subsided, the time is ripe to assess what has remained standing. In his recent book, Reading Talcott Parsons: A Re-Assessment of His Legacy, Helmut Staubmann undertakes this task with seriousness. Each chapter initially concentrates on a particular aspect of the General Theory of Action - including its different stages, its theory of interchange media, its perspective on social change and evolution, its conceptualization of personality and culture - which is then examined in virtue of its relevance for contemporary sociology. The study pursues pedagogical, systematic, and analytical goals while developing a multidimensional analysis that explores ontological, epistemological, methodological, and sociological questions, alongside an examination of the distinctive features of modern societies. For these reasons, it constitutes an essential reading for those interested in Parsons’s thought and may also prove highly stimulating for anyone interested in sociological and social theory more broadly.