Stand Reconstructed: Contingent Closure and Institutional Change

Abstract:     
The process is traced whereby crucially important, multiple denotations of classical sociology's key notion referring to social position - the Weberian German concept of "Stand" - have been stripped to create a simplified and inaccurate representation of social inequalities. Some historical material from central Europe is surveyed, with a brief look at Japan, to demonstrate validity problems created by blanket application of the culturally specific, streamlined notions of status/class. As an alternative, a notion of contingent social closure argues relaxing the modernizationist assumptions of a single transition from estate to status/class increases the comparative-historical sensitivity of research on social structure, inequality, and stratification. A dynamic reading of Polányi suggests a reconceptualization of institutions as the "raw material" of social change. This might help avoid the outdated contrast of the "West" vs. its "Others."

Keywords: social change, contingent closure, institutional change, Weber, Polányi, estate, status, class, modernizationism, West, Otherness

Accepted Paper Series