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Sociologica
Article . 2013
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Appreciating Robert Bellah's Life Project

Authors: Paul Lichterman;

Appreciating Robert Bellah's Life Project

Abstract

I want to talk a little differently about Bob’s legacy, since my reflections will be the last. They may be somewhat different, and shorter than the others. I want to close our time with some thoughts on Bob’s life as a life-project. Bob asked the biggest intellectual questions we ask. His life project was a distinctively modern one, but we may not immediately recognize it that way. That’s what I want to appreciate with you. I first met Bob when I was writing a dissertation related to one of Bob’s master questions: What makes modern political community possible? I had become interested in the debate about the role of individualism in American culture and its effects on political community. Northern California was a great laboratory for different kinds of political community – and “inquiring minds wanted to know.” My ethnographic inquiry taught me a great deal of what I called personalized politics. This was an individually expressive politics, and yet a politics geared to collective action – for social change, for environmentalism, for the end of nuclear weapons, feminism. So yes, the individualism in American culture could in fact produce a kind of political community. Since Bob was famously critical of the various individualisms and their effects on political community I went to talk to Bob about my research, warily. There was a spicy rumor that went around among grads during that time, which basically said: “If you disagree with Bob, he’ll tear you up into little pieces.” Now: I have no doubt that Bob had the intellectual vigor to do that if he really wanted to. But I never saw him do anything of the sort even when people disagreed with him.

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
Published in a Diamond OA journal