When examining how the social sciences have dealt with ideology, one's first impression is often one of considerable confusion. Sociology in particular is the scene of heated debates about ideology. These debates go sometimes so far as to echo doubts of participants with regard to their opponents' scientific endeavor, even straightforward denials of their scientific status. This volume brings together a series of articles that throw light on selected aspects of this intricate matter by well-known sociologists Boudon, Wittrock, Arnason, Touraine, Smolicz, Secombe, Wieviorka, Ben-Rafael and Sternberg.

Eliezer Ben-Rafael, Ph.D. (1974) in Sociology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is Weinberg Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Tel-Aviv. His recent works include Jewish identities: Fifty intellectuals answer to Ben-Gurion (Brill, 2002), and Crisis and Tranformation (Brill, 1997); he has edited with Y. Gorny and Y. Ro'I Contemporary Jewries: Convergence and Divergence (Brill, 2003), and with Y. Sternberg Identity, Culture and Globalization (Brill, 2002).