Explaining Social Processes

Jiří Šubrt is an associate professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague. He studied sociology and economics at the same university, and since 1990, he has lectured at Charles University. In 2009, he founded and has since been leader of the Department of Historical Sociology at the Faculty of Humanities at the university. He is a member of the editorial board of the Historical Sociology: A Journal of Historical Social Sciences and several other sociological journals. In the area of historical sociology he has focused on the problems of the civilization process, civilizational comparative analysis and multiple modernities. Over the longer term he has also given attention to the issues of time and memory, recently implementing a 3-year project focused on the empirical research of the historical consciousness of the Czech population. He is the author and editor of several books published in the Czech, English and Russian languages, which mainly deal with the theme of contemporary sociological theory, particularly with regard to issues of action, structure, social systems and social change.Alemayehu Kumsa is an assistant professor in the sociology of organization management at Škoda Auto University in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic.  He received his MA and PhD from the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University, Prague. He taught for many years, first at the Institute of Middle East and African Studies, and later at the Institute of Ethnology of Charles University. His interest areas include: theories of nationalism; African society and culture; the sociology of development and transformation; the sociology of terrorism; the sociology of globalization; and organization management. He has published more than 20 book chapters, along with articles in international journals and conference papers. He is a member of the editorial board of the Historical Sociology: A Journal of Historical Social SciencesMassimiliano Ruzzeddu is tenured researcher in sociology at Niccolò Cusano University, Rome, Italy. He is Vice-President of the World Complexity Science Academy (WCSA). He is also co-director of the WCSA Book Series and co-director of the journal System Research and Behavioral Science. He has authored several scientific works in the epistemology of social science and social theory.  Among his most recent works is Between Rationality and Irrationality (co-edited with Andrea Millefiorini), L’Harmattan Paris.

• Introduction.- The society of individuals and figurations.- Rethinking the theory of structuration.- Actor, or homo sociologicus.- Functionally differentiated society from the systemic perspective.- The sociology of ignorance.- Time as a sociological problem.- Collective memory and historical consciousness.- The complexity of identity building.- Historical sociology as temporalized sociology.- Social power from the perspective of historical sociology.-  Diagnosis of current social processes.- Precariousness.- Migration.- The dimensions of globalization