Costas Polyzos
Greece – Department of Sociology, University of Athens
Research area: Social theory, Weberian sociology of religion, Weberian methodology, history and sociology of the Greek Orthodox Church, sociology of the state.
I was introduced to Max Weber during my bachelor studies in sociology, as part of the standard curriculum on the sociology classics, but my interest in Weberian theory began developing after I read Pierre Bourdieu’s works. By studying Bourdieu’s writings, I was fascinated, among other things, by how fruitful the Weberian methodology and epistemology can be. As a result, I began studying Weber in depth and tried to make sense of his (complicated) methodology, so as to be able to make use of it in my own research. I used the Weberian concept of charisma in my master’s thesis, where I tried to show that Erving Goffman’s dramaturgy can work as a descriptive sociology of domination in everyday interactions. Currently, I am working on my PhD in the Sociology Department of the University of Athens, where Weber’s methodology and writings play an even more important part. With my doctoral thesis, I hope to add another chapter, so to speak, to the Weberian sociology of religion, by examining the social, economic, and political effects that orthodox Christianity had on the then newly-formed Greek state and society of the 19th century.