Imagined Anthropologists. Origini e fortuna di Clifford Geertz nella sociologia culturale contemporanea

This article reconstructs the circulation of a condensed image of Clifford Geertz’s ideas and work – labeled «Geertz73» – within contemporary American cultural sociology. We examine two different and opposing sociological currents: the Strong Program in cultural sociology developed by Jeffrey C. Alexander and his colleagues at Yale, for whom «Geertz73» serves as a positive point of reference; and the broad group of sociologists drawing on practice theory and cognitive science (A. Swidler, O. Lizardo, S. Vaisey), who are sharply critical of Geertz’s legacy. Beyond mapping this controversy, the article repeats and underlines a broader theoretical principle: the meaning and value of ideas depend on the ever-changing structure of intellectual debates and on the shifting relational positioning needs of the individual and collective actors who participate in them.