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Interstate Relations and the Sociological Imagination Revisited : From Social Distance to Territoriality *
Author(s) -
Lyman Stanford M.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1995.tb00409.x
Subject(s) - territoriality , sociology , conceptualization , sociological imagination , globe , successor cardinal , social science , epistemology , medicine , mathematical analysis , philosophy , mathematics , communication , artificial intelligence , computer science , ophthalmology
This essay presents a conceptualization basic to the development of a global sociology. Claiming that territoriality is the successor concept to social distance, the author provides an extension of the aspects of territorialization to the entire globe. A global sociology requires a reactivation and global application of two nearly forgotten subdisciplines: sphragistics, that is, the discipline that investigates ideas and practices related to the use of seals and signet rings; and ekistics, that is, the scientific study of human settlements. Among the subconcepts that are elaborated in service to these developments are home territorialization, boundaried communication, and the territorialization of the body politic. Examples are drawn from post‐cold war developments in Eastern Europe.