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The chapter addresses the crucial question of whether in fact sociology actually answers the questions that it purports to and suggests that in much of its present form the subject is still trapped in a framework of Eurocentric and Cartesian assumptions that would be greatly modified and deepened by considering alternative ways of conceptualizing the social world. The chapter attempts to offer exactly such a fresh viewpoint by investigating alternative sources of sociological insight, including those that might arise from Buddhism, significant thinkers left outside the canon of mainstream sociology, ecology and feminism. The notion of "deep sociology" has obvious analogies with "deep ecology", and the chapter argues that by exploring that analogy new forms of sociology and social theory can be conceived that open up basic existential questions which, while in some sense implied in conventional sociology, need to be foregrounded. While these include the crucial issue of ecology, they also include such topics as death, love, illness and the body. The chapter provides a sketch of potential new forms of social analysis, which, while it does not deny the concept of the 'social", attempts to recast it in creative ways.

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-6641-2_4

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