Jeffrey Alexander and Cultural Sociology : Polity Press : 9781509555567 : 1509555560 : 21 Apr 2023 : This book presents the first comprehensive and critical account of Jeffrey Alexander's cultural sociology. Alexander has proposed a ?strong program? in cultural sociology that analyses the cultural pragmatics of social performance. His hermeneutical approach connects meaningful political action with deeper symbolic structures of social life.    Rooted in a rereading of classical sociology, Alexander's cultural sociology focuses on the aesthetics of political expressions and their relation to the civil sphere. His highly original account of the civil sphere, as an institutionalized domain that is shaped by the discourse of liberty and solidarity and that sustains universalizing cultural aspirations, provides an illuminating perspective on how democracy functions, and fails to function, in contemporary societies.    This book charts the development of Alexander's thought in all its comple