Integrative Perspective in Civilization Analysis

The main purpose of the article is to explore the integrative perspective in civilizational analysis. Attention is mainly focused on the ‘micro-macro link’ as a crucial theoretical and methodological issue in sociology. Civilizational theories of N. Elias, S. Eisenstadt and R. Collins have an explicitly integrative character and demonstrate a rejection of the micro- or macrolevel determinism, which is now replaced by the principle of interdependency between the macrolevel of institutions, large-scale structures and long-term processes and the microlevel of individual actions, small-scale structures and face-to-face interactions. The contemporary civilizational analysis is also developing other integrative lines — theoretical synthesis as well as integrative analysis of culture, structure and agency and also culture, economy and power as dimensions of civilizational complexes.