Modern Social Theory

Description

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the leading topics, theories and debates in modern social theory. Fourteen chapters have been written by specialists in the field, providing up-to-date guidance on the full sweep of the modern sociological imagination, from the legacies of the classical figures of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel and Parsons to the work of cutting-edge contemporary theorists.

• Provides coverage of both classical and contemporary social theory in a single volume, offering a one-stop guide to all the major topics in the theoretical foundations of modern sociology
• Covers the legacies of the classical figures of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel and Parsons but lays special emphasis on recent developments in social theory since the later twentieth century
• Fourteen chapters have been written by leading specialists in the field on the major topics of modern social theory
• Covers the centre ground of modern sociology but also reaches out to the many current interdisciplinary debates in cultural studies, anthropology, feminist theory, postcolonial studies, philosophy and political science
• All chapters are supplied with questions for discussion, study boxes, guidance on further reading and useful web site addresses

About the Author(s)

Austin Harrington, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Leeds.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What is Social Theory?, Austin Harrington
1:Classical Social Theory, I: Contexts and Beginnings, Austin Harrington
2:Classical Social Theory, II: Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim, Antonino Palumbo and Alan Scott
3:Classical Social Theory, III: Max Weber and Georg Simmel, Gianfranco Poggi
4:Functionalism and its Critics, John Holmwood
5:Interpretivism and Interactionism, William Outhwaite
6:Historical Social Theory, Dennis Smith
7:Western Marxism, Douglas Kellner
8:Psychoanalytic Social Theory, Anthony Elliott
9:Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Samantha Ashenden
10:Structure and Agency, Anthony King
11:Feminist Social Theory, Lisa Adkins
12:Modernity and Postmodernity: Part I, Barry Smart
13:Modernity and Postmodernity: Part II, Gerard Delanty
14:Globalization, Robert Holton
Conclusion: Social Theory for the Twenty-First Century, Austin Harrington