Karl Mannheim's "Ideology and Utopia" unleashed a fury of critical activity when it was published in 1929. The book became a focus for debate on the methodical and epistemological problems confronting German social science. More than 30 major papers were published as a response to Mannheim's book. Writers like Karl Wittfogel, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Ernst Lewalter, Paul Tillich, Hannah Arendt and Hans Speier were among the contributors. Some saw the sociology of knowledge as a sophisticated reconception of the materialist conception of history whilst others linked its popularity to a betrayal of Marxism. This book provides an introduction to the dispute and reproduces leading contributions. It illuminates one of the greatest controversies to shake German social science in the last century.

Product Description: This book focuses on the important work of Karl Mannheim by demonstrating how his theoretical conception of a reflexive sociology took shape as a collaborative empirical research programme. The authors show how contemporary work along these lines can benefit from the insights of Mannheim and his students into both morphology and genealogy...read more

Product Description: This authoritative two volume collection presents both the classic articles and the most important recent literature which are essential for an understanding of the sociology of knowledge. Topics covered in Volume I include the intellectual precursors and emergence of the sociology of knowledge; the classical sociology of knowledge; and the sociology of knowledge dispute...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: David Kettler, Meja Volker y Nico Stehr hacen en este volumen una reconstrucción de la ruta intelectual de Mannheim, entre los años 1920 y 1947, poniendo especial interés en los planteamientos críticos que servirían para fundar toda una escuela del pensamiento sociológico...read more