On Social and Cultural Needs

Abstract

The contents of this article attempt to offer a historical interdisciplinary analysis of the concept of necessity, which is not only very dense and productive within the sociological field, but also within the anthropological one. Firstly, we will analyse the contributions to this subject from different approximations. The theories of pioneering authors such as Durkheim or Malinowski, the postulates of sistemic functionalism, the theses of the most important members of the Frankfurt School and the debates arisen by the theoretical approximations rooted in marxist thought. Secondly, we will analyse the sociological concept of necessity giving an interdisciplinary perspective based on the theoretical contributions of most recent debates and making a profound selective study of the present controversy within sociology of necessity and local social work. Finally, we will try to establish a nexus between sociological tradition and the new sociological perspectives, bearing in mind the specific problems of a practical kind yielded by consumerism and sociocultural equipments, and also by the perspective of social movements. (Autor)