Gavin Walker

West College Scotland, Care and Life Sciences, Lecturer (retired)

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B.A. (Hons) Social Sciences C.N.A.A. 1980
Ph.D. (Sociology of Gender) University of Edinburgh 1990; M.Sc. Environmental Science University of Strathclyde 1995.

Interests in Weber, cultural anthropology, Jungian psychology, gender, the natural environment.

Three articles published so far, all in History of the Human Sciences:-

"Society and Culture in Sociological and Anthropological Tradition" (2001)
"Sociological Theory and the Natural Environment" (2005)
"Sociological Theory and Jungian Psychology" (2013)

Books:-
Jung and Sociological Theory: Readings and Appraisal.
Published by Routledge, Nov. 2017
Psyche, Science and Society: Essays on Jung and Sociology
Published by Routledge, April 2023

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Books by Gavin Walker

Psyche, Science and Society: Essays on Jung and Sociology

Routledge, 2023

Official publication date 13 April 2023. Indicative contents: race; the Nazi era; religion; the ... more

Jung and Sociological Theory: Readings and Appraisal

Routledge, 2017

Carl Jung has always lain at the edge of sociology's consciousness, despite the existence of a lo... more Carl Jung has always lain at the edge of sociology's consciousness, despite the existence of a long-established Freudian tradition. Yet, over the years, a small number of sociological writers have considered Jung; one or two Jungian writers have considered sociology. The range of perspectives is quite wide: Durkheim, Weber, Marx, Levi-Strauss, feminism, mass society, postmodernism. These scattered writings, however, have had little cumulative impact and inspired little debate. The authors seem often not to have known of each other, while the sociological mainstream has remained unmoved or unaware. This is the situation that this book seeks to change. Jung and Sociological Theory brings together a selection of articles and excerpts in a single volume, together with some writings from anthropology, and seeks to begin the task of critical evaluation. Presented in three parts, the book covers anthropology, sociology and an appraisal of Jung and sociological theory. Gavin Walker explores the relationship between Jung and sociology, asking what the writers included here wanted from Jung, how we should locate Jung on the sociological landscape, and how this might link to anthropology. In conclusion he suggests that sociology's problem with Jung is less that he is difficult to place, than that he compels sociology to face some of its own inconsistencies and evasions. Jung and Sociological Theory will be of interest to all academics and students working in the fields of Jungian studies, analytical psychology and psychoanalysis, sociology, anthropology, feminism, comparative religion and the history of ideas. © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Gavin Walker. All rights reserved.

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Papers by Gavin Walker

Sociological Theory and Jungian Psychology

History of the Human Sciences 25/1, Mar 1, 2012

In this article I seek to relate the psychology of Carl Jung to sociological theory, specifically... more In this article I seek to relate the psychology of Carl Jung to sociological theory, specifically Weber. I first present an outline of Jungian psychology. I then seek to relate this as psychology to Weber’s interpretivism. I point to basic methodological compatibilities within a Kantian frame, from which emerge central concerns with the factors limiting rationality. These generate the conceptual frameworks for parallel enquiries into the development and fate of rationality in cultural history. Religion is a major theme here: contrasts of Eastern and Western religion; the rise of prophetic religion and the disenchantment of modernity. Weber’s categories ascetic and mystic seem applicable to his own and Jung’s approaches and indeed temperaments, while a shared ironic view of rationality leads to similar visions of the disenchanted modern world. I conclude that Jung is sociologically coherent, but in an entirely different sense from Freud: rather than a constellation of family, socialization, ideology, social continuity, there is an analysis of cultural history against a background of adult normal psychology. I conclude that sociology should acknowledge Jung, but not in terms of over-arching theory. Rather Jungian insights might be used to orient new enquiries, and for reflexive analysis of sociology’s methodological debates.

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Sociological Theory and the Natural Environment

HIstory of the Human Sciences 18/1, Mar 1, 2005

In this article, I criticize environmental sociology's conventional diagnosis of its methodologic... more In this article, I criticize environmental sociology's conventional diagnosis of its methodological situation and overly narrow definition of its field. I argue for a greater engagement with the natural science base and consideration of anthropological approaches. I start with conceptual analysis, identifying the human-environment relationship as a proactive two-way interaction. I then present an outline of global environmental dynamics, highlighting the unequal size of human activities on geosphere and biosphere scale, and the role of the biosphere as manager of the geosphere; this as context for the human population problem. Three types of environmental problems are next identified: urban-industrial, rural-agrarian, and high hazard exposure. These are seen as forming a continuum, with anthropogenic and natural factors synergizing at the centre. I comment on their geographic distribution, noting Europe's limited and specific environmental experience. Lastly I attempt an overview without biological metaphors of the human-environment relationship through time, commenting on its inherent imbalances and how these might be diagnosed. I conclude that sociology's bias to modernity and the West renders it inadequate to the global environmental question. A wider and deeper spacio-temporal consideration is needed, with the whole continuum of environmental problems considered. For this, environmental sociology should seek a synthesis with cultural anthropology centring on the anthropological concept of culture; an approach, I argue, that is accessible through the sociology of Max Weber.

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Society and Culture in Sociological and Anthropological Tradition

History of the Human Sciences 14/3, Sep 1, 2001

In this article I consider the uses of the concepts `society' and `culture' in various sociologic... more In this article I consider the uses of the concepts `society' and `culture' in various sociological and anthropological traditions, arguing that sociology needs to learn from the division between social anthropology and cultural anthropology. First I distinguish the social and the cultural sciences: the former use `society' as leading concept and `culture' as a subordinate concept; the latter do the contrary. I discuss the origins of the terms société and Kultur in the classical French and German traditions respectively, and their subsequent uptake in Anglo-American sociology and anthropology, `society' becoming the leading concept for sociology and social anthropology; `culture' the leading concept for cultural anthropology. I contrast the sociology of culture with the cultural anthropological consideration of society. I next examine the terms for `society' in the classical German tradition, especially Weber, pointing to interpretivism as a cultural theory of society. I then consider Weber's Kultursoziologie, arguing that it is culture (Kultur) not society (Gesellschaft) that is the ultimate object of Weber's sociology. I conclude that sociology needs to identify classical German sociology and its derivatives as cultural science not social science, and to make comprehensive adjustments to its methodological debates accordingly. The implications of this for the problem of sociology's encounter with the natural world are noted.

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