Three main ways of analysing European societies

Abstract

"In this trial to help you to analyse European societies, I rather point to basic perspectives, questions and hypotheses than to detailed information and empirical proofs. This is a first limitation: The complex reality does always transcend our restrained efforts and models to catch and understand it. A second basic limit will be that I, a German Jesuit, will not be able to cope with the considerable economic, political and, especially, socio-cultural differences between European societies: My presentation will certainly be biased by my German background. I necessarily have to generalize, also in the sense that I will explain the three 'ways of analysis' in a simplified, short-cut manner. The question for you will be: What is different or more specific in the concrete case of my country? The three approaches I propose here differ from their perspective: The first will be from sociology of economy (Manuel Castells), the second from sociology of culture (Ulrich Beck), and the third from sociology of religion. This last one will be a mixed approach, as there is no single convincing approach to deal with religion in Europe - it draws from David Martin, Jose Casanova, Joerg Stolz, Steve Bruce and Ronald Inglehart." (author's abstract)