On Social Closure

Bridging a classical locus of social theory, Mackert produces a new and robust theory of social closure that contributes to the growth of a genuinely global theory. The book breaks solid ground for our understanding of the effects of capitalism and the resilience of colonial formations. Mackert's ability to connect empirical and historical analysis with refined and very clear conceptual and theoretical steps is prodigious and unparalleled. * Benoit Challand, New School for Social Research * Jürgen Mackert's On Social Closure is a masterful recovery and reworking of some classical themes introduced by Max Weber about how group power is manifested through processes of social closure. The book takes us far beyond earlier work, most notably that of Frank Parkin in the late 1970s, to consider how closure operates in the global context. A major contribution to contemporary social theory. * Jeff Manza, New York University * On Social Closure is driven by two dissatisfactions namely the limitations of existing theories of closure from Max Weber to contemporary sociology and the neglect of the Global South in the sociological obsession with western modernity. Mackert comprehensively corrects both limitations by developing a general theory of closure, consisting of exclusion, exploitation, and elimination in which social life as such is collective struggle. * Bryan S. Turner, Australian Catholic University *