Vincenzo Cesareo

V. CESAREO - I. VACCARINI, The proposal of humanist constructionism Sociological theory in the twentieth century polarized between collectivist doctrines which asserted social determinism and individualist ones which asserted the autonomous action of atomistically conceived individuals. The late 1900s also saw the advent of a kind of radical individualism which can be labelled «sociological minimalism». «Social constructionism» is the contemporary approach which seeks to reconcile the above polarizations, and it is within its theoretical domain that lies the proposal for a «humanist constructionism» put forward in this article. Humanist constructionism sets value on subjectivity and historicity. On this base it thematizes the person understood as a sociological category, and it crucially refers to the sociology of Max Weber in so far as it is qualified by the existential and historicist dimensions. The distinctive feature of humanist constructionism is its axiological profile founded upon the concept of citizenship. Within contemporary sociology, «humanist constructionism» has a particular elective affinity with the morphogenetic approach of M. Archer. Key words: humanism, constructionism, person, citizenship.

Contrariamente alla storia e alla filosofia, la sociologia non può vantare una lunga tradizione europea di studi in materia

The rapid processes of globalisation tend to redesign the outlines of contemporary societies, making them less homogenous and closed than in the past. Initially, the chapter takes into consideration the modern age as the period in which the concept of identity has started to gain relevance, especially since the birth of the state-nation and its corresponding social space. Reference to such an historical experience allows a better understanding of the explosion of the quest for identity in our contemporary age. Attention is then focused on some problematical questions, which have provoked different answers, concerning individual freedom and the wish of community. In the first case, it is explained how individualisation and subjectivity, coming together with the changed social frame, could generate deep anti-social impulses. In the second case, analysis is focused on the emergence of a number of particular solidarities, connected with given cultural visions of identity. Such visions have regained position through the retrieval of the ethnical resource, a container to which needs, questions, and expectations are oriented.