Abstract
Thanks to the axiomatic of ‘social emergence’, mainstream sociology takes it for granted that normative social orders result from social action. This assumption is substantially challenged by the current legitimation crisis of societies. Accelerating qualitative societal differentiation compels social actors to enforce multiple competing social structuration processes. The creativity of social action is thus called upon to deliver ever new adaptation performances in a context of passive social structuration. Asymmetric social consensus substitutes actively advocated social orders founded on processes of democratic legitimation. The analysis of the micro-sociological limits of institutionalisation as well as of the anthropological limits of validity assists in pointing out the shortcomings of normative structuration processes in complex societies. The chapter thus shows how shifting legitimacy reaches its breaking point.
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Fitzi, G. (2022). Shifting Legitimacy: The Theoretical Issue of Social Validity. In: Normative Intermittency. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06174-5_7
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