Philip Selznick Ideals in the World [Hardcover]

Philip Selznick's wide-ranging writings engaged with fundamental questions concerning society, politics, institutions, law, and morals. Never confined by a single discipline or approach, he proved himself a major figure across a range of fields including sociology, organizations and institutions, leadership, political science, sociology of law, political theory, and social philosophy. This volume, the first book-length treatment of Selznick's ideas, discusses Selznick's various intellectual contributions.

Reading across Selznick's work, one appreciates the coherence of his fundamental preoccupationswith the social conditions for frustration and the vindication of values and ideas. Exploring Selznick's insights into the nature and quality of institutional, legal, and social life, the book also examines his particular ways of thinking, concerns, values, and sensibility. Martin Krygier brings to light the coherence of Selznick's fundamental preoccupations, allowing readers to fully engage with his unique insights and distinctive moral-intellectual sensibility.

It's remarkable that no comparable study of Selznick's work has previously appeared. This welcome book is fluent, approachable, and insightful. Krygier writes with a profound understanding of Selznick's distinctive approach to social science, clearly tracing the themes that unite his thought and providing a new perspective on his contributions. Krygier's contributionbeyond a highly competent, exhaustive, readable, intellectual biography of a major scholaris a clear thesis persuasively defended. Martin Krygier is Gordon Samuels Professor of Law and Social Theory at the University of New South Wales, and Adjunct Professor at the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), Australian National University. Martin Krygier has written a wonderfully lucid and perceptive intellectual biography of Philip Selznick, covering the full range of Selznick's work in organizational theory, leadership studies, legal l9