Sociologija tranzicije: strukturalni, sociokulturni i neomodernizacijski pristup
Sociology of Transition: Structural, Sociocultural and Neomodernisational Approach

Summary/Abstract: Issues that are dealt with in this work are: 1) is transition only one form of social change and which dimensions does it include; 2) which are the theoretical approaches present in literature and 3) is there room for the sociology of transition as a separate sociological discipline and what would be its specific qualities. These questions are posed through a critical review of reducing transition to the economic and political dimensions with the attempt of establishing the thesis of sociocultural transformation as a more comprehensive theoretical framework which apart from changes in the social structure observes changes in social values as well. A third possible approach to transition through the application of the theory of modernisation is also presented, which perceives transition and transformation as a (dis)continued socio-historical process. In the results of empirical research on the psychosocial consequences of privatisation in Croatia, this limitation of reducing the transitional process to purely economic transition becomes obvious as well as measuring its efficiency with solely economic indicators. The transformation model, as a possible sociological approach to transition, encompasses apart from the structural also the sociocultural (evaluative) dimension of transition and suggests a different approach in conceptualisation. With such unification of the structural and sociocultural approach of the process of transition viewed through the socio-historical modernisational dimension, sociology of transition certainly gains its theoretical stronghold as a separate sociological sub-discipline.

• Details
• Contents