“Indi-rok sotsiolohia” Mishelia Maffesoli

This paper deals with the social theory of contemporary French sociologist Michel Maffesoli. Its difference from “mainstream sociology” is emphasized in the framework of considering the social and cultural changes of modern society. His independent and partially uncommon point of view on these changes and their interpretation prompts us to call his theory “indie-rock sociology” according to well-known counterculture movement in rock-music. Maffesoli is intensely concerned with “interaction in public” and focusing on small groups and temporary grouping which we are members of at different times during our day. Maffesoli develops the concept of “neo-tribalism” in order to explore these groups in a way of describing their social composition, ethics and symbolic life. Neo-tribes are the central feature and key social facts of our experience of everyday living. Like other French theorists such as Michel De Certeau and Jean Baudrillard, Maffesoli takes up an engaged position within the flux of social life rather than at a cool distance. The effect is to produce an internal analysis of the ‘sociality within’ societies too often known, as to Maffesoli, only through the ‘simulacra’ of statistical demography. This paper deals with the social theory of contemporary French sociologist Michel Maffesoli. Its difference from “mainstream sociology” is emphasized in the framework of considering the social and cultural changes of modern society. His independent and partially uncommon point of view on these changes and their interpretation prompts us to call his theory “indie-rock sociology” according to well-known counterculture movement in rock-music. Maffesoli is intensely concerned with “interaction in public” and focusing on small groups and temporary grouping which we are members of at different times during our day. Maffesoli develops the concept of “neo-tribalism” in order to explore these groups in a way of describing their social composition, ethics and symbolic life. Neo-tribes are the central feature and key social facts of our experience of everyday living. Like other French theorists such as Michel De Certeau and Jean Baudrillard, Maffesoli takes up an engaged position within the flux of social life rather than at a cool distance. The effect is to produce an internal analysis of the ‘sociality within’ societies too often known, as to Maffesoli, only through the ‘simulacra’ of statistical demography.