On Inheritance

by Andreas Reckwitz

Contemporary inheritance society isn’t exhausted by questions of wealth alone. It speaks much more to the fact that in late modernity, at multiple levels, the general societal appreciation of being confronted by an inheritance from past generations has also sharpened. One views oneself and others from the perspectives of: individuals, as social groups, as a national society, and even as the species Homo sapiens, who inherit in the present from the past or, in the future, will inherit something.

Issue 191, December 2025 – Celebrating George Ritzer

This Festschrift honors the enduring legacy of George Ritzer, one of sociology’s most influential and recognizable figures. Ritzer’s scholarship has helped shape core areas of the discipline—ranging from consumption and social theory to globalization and beyond—while also generating new conceptual terrains such as McDonaldization, prosumption, and the study of “nothing” and “something.”

Issue 190, October 2025 – New Views From China – Postgraduate Perspectives From Chengdu

This special issue is a product of over a decade of collaboration between Thesis Eleven and Sichuan University’s College of Literature and Journalism. The issue provides a platform for emerging Chengdu scholars and developed around the idea that this younger generation of Masters students might consider writing less directly in their immediate fields of research and more in terms of general and personal interest. It offers a window into some of the concerns and patterns of thinking of the next generation and the worlds that they inhabit, where tradition and modernity intersect.