Ernest Gellner and Contemporary Social Thought

Siniša Malešević is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. His recent publications include Identity as Ideology: Understanding Ethnicity and Nationalism (2006), The Sociology of Ethnicity (2004), Ideology, Legitimacy and the New State (2002) and Making Sense of Collectivities (co-edited with Mark Haugaard, 2002). Mark Haugaard is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway and was Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. His recent publications include Power and Ideology (2006), Power: A Reader (2002), and Making Sense of Collectivities (co-edited with Siniša Malešević, 2002).

• Introduction: an intellectual rebel with a cause Mark Haugaard and Siniša Malešević; Part I. Civil Society, Coercion and Liberty: 1. Ernest Gellner on liberty and modernity Alan Macfarlane; 2. Predation and production in European imperialism Michael Mann; 3. Power, modernity and liberal democracy Mark Haugaard; 4. Gellner versus Marxism: a major concern or a fleeting affair? Peter Skalnik; Part II. Ideology, Nationalism and Modernity: 5. Nationalism: restructuring Gellner's theory Nicos Mouzelis; 6. Between the book and the new sword: Gellner, violence and ideology Siniša Malešević; 7. Ernest Gellner and the multicultural mess Thomas Hylland Eriksen; Part III. Islam, Postmodernism and Gellner's Metaphysic: 8. Islam, Modernity and Science Michael Lessnoff; 9. Truth, reason and the spectre of contingency Kevin Ryan; 10. Gellner's metaphysic John A. Hall.

'These lively critical essays reflect the remarkable range of Ernest Gellner's scholarship. Even when they disagree with his answers, the authors testify to the importance of the Gellnerian questions and the enduring legacy of his approaches.' Chris Hann, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology