Neo-Sorokinian School

= attempts to continue the 'Civilizational Analysis' approach pioneered by Pitirim Sorokin

Summary

By Deep Seek:

"While there's no single dominant "Sorokin Institute," his work has been kept alive by a dedicated group of sociologists, historians, and complexity thinkers. The primary hub is the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC), which Sorokin co-founded with Arnold Toynbee.

Key figures and extensions:

S. N. Eisenstadt: His work on the "Axial Age" (a term from Karl Jaspers) is deeply resonant with Sorokin. Eisenstadt argued that around 500 BCE, multiple civilizations (Greece, Israel, India, China) underwent a radical shift toward transcendental ideals challenging the mundane order. This can be seen as a shift toward the Ideational, or a struggle to establish a new Idealistic synthesis. This applies Sorokin's lens beyond the West to multiple civilizations.

Robert Bellah: In "Religion in Human Evolution," Bellah traces the evolution of religious consciousness through stages that map loosely onto Sorokin's types—from tribal (embedded) to archaic, axial (ideational/idealistic struggles), and modern. He provides a comparative civilizational analysis Sorokin began.

Jiří Šubrt: A contemporary Czech sociologist who has written extensively on civilizational analysis, explicitly reviving and defending Sorokin's approach against its critics."