ABSTRACT
In the beginning was disillusionment. When sociology as an academic discipline took shape in Europe and America hardly more than a century ago, it was as a reaction to severe problems of early industrial society. Trust that enlightenment and science would bring about both technological and social progress for all had been eroded by the nineteenth century’s severe economic, political and national antagonisms. Sociology tried to articulate the situation but did not provide practical solutions.2 Instead, structural descriptions and theoretical explanations of a very abstract sort became a means of coping with a historical situation that had disappointed the projects of autonomy, freedom, equality and solidarity for all. The disappointment lay in the fact that a dialectical process of increased technical, cultural, and social possibilities had at the same time produced more restrictions and dependencies.
