all the 'new paradigm' proposals about the nature of the contemporary world (that we are entering a post-industrial society, a postmodern society, a r isk society, an informational society .. . ) remain so many Ptolemizations of the 'old paradigm' of classic sociological models

When a discipline is in crisis, attempts are made to change or supplement its theses within the terms of its basic framework - a procedure one might call 'Ptolemization' (since when data poured in which clashed with Ptolemy's earth-centred astronomy, his partisans introduced additional complications to account fo r the anomalies).