Abstract
This book concentrates on current sociological topics enabling to approach the problems of contemporary society. These topics are situated into the contexts of development of both postindustrial society and also modern and postmodern sociology.
The emphasis is put on problems which have not yet been systematically studied in sociological literature: e. g. the problem of both capitalism's legitimacy and real socialism's legitimacy, the role of coincidence and happy accident in social dynamic, the moral panic, the meritocracy and the crisis of university, the political scandal as a social phenomenon, the so-called carnival culture and transformations of life styles (e. g. the crisis of trust, transformations of friendship, the role of the new media, etc.). The whole monograph is interspersed with citations of sociological (but also literary) authorities, which illustrate and complement the author's arguement.