ABSTRACT
Vienna had its own village culture, it cultivated its own forms of sociality and its own forms of talk that flourished within gossip circles. Vienna also offered to the young and learning its old university and a new but distinguished Institute for Advanced Study, a bounded academic environment independent from the university and oriented toward post-graduate training and research. One could rehearse a more global professional existence in Vienna at the Institute. The Institute years were intense, challenging and of pivotal importance in shaping the author's future interests and orientation. They linked one up with "global sociology", if by that one means prominent social scientists and philosophers from many nations. They also linked one with global politics, through the intense discussions held of what was happening politically and on a student movement level, in other places. And yet one can feel at ease in a global world, and homeless in the local environments one encounters.
