Handbook of Social Theory

George Ritzer, Barry Smart, George Ritzer, Barry Smart

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN: 9780761941873, 9780761958406
• eBook ISBN: 9781847876737
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the roots, current debates and future development of social theory. It draws together a team of outstanding international scholars and presents an authoritative and panoramic critical survey of the field.

The volume is divided into three parts. The first part examines the classical tradition. Included here are critical discussions of Comte, Spencer, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Mead, Freud, Mannheim and classical feminist thought. This part conveys the classical tradition as a living resource in social theory, it demonstrates not only the critical significance of classical writings, but their continuing relevance.

The second part moves on to examine the terrain of contemporary social theory. The contributions discuss the significance and strengths and weaknesses of structural functionalism, recent Marxian theory, critical theory, symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, ethnomethodology, exchange theory, rational choice, contemporary feminism, multiculturalism, postmodernism, the thought of Foucault and Habermas, and figurational sociology. The reader gains a comprehensive and informed picture of the key issues and central figures of the day.

The final part ranges over the key debates in current social theory. Questions relating to positivism, metatheorizing, cultural studies, consumption, sexualities, the body, globalism, nationalism, socialism, knowledge societies, ethics and morality, as well as post-social relations are fully discussed. The dilemmas and promise of contemporary social theory are revealed with pinpoint accuracy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• 1 Introduction: Theorists, Theories and Theorizing
• 2 Modernity, Enlightenment, Revolution and Romanticism: Creating Social Theory
• 3 The Origins of Positivism: The Contributions of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer
• 4 Maintaining Marx
• 5 Max Weber: Work and Interpretation
• 6 The Continuing Relevance of Georg Simmel: Staking Out Anew the Field of Sociology
• 7 Durkheim's Project for a Sociological Science
• 8 The Emergence of the New: Mead's Theory and Its Contemporary Potential
• 9 Karl Mannheim and the Sociology of Knowledge
• 10 Psychoanalysis and Sociology: From Freudo-Marxism to Freudo-Feminism
• 11 Classical Feminist Social Theory
• 12 Functional, Conflict and Neofunctional Theories
• 13 Talcott Parsons: Conservative Apologist or Irreplaceable Icon?
• 14 Nietzsche: Social Theory in the Twilight of the Millennium
• 15 Critical Theory
• 16 Jürgen Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action: An Incomplete Project
• 17 Symbolic Interactionism at the End of the Century
• 18 Phenomenology and Social Theory
• 19 Fundamentals of Ethnomethodology
• 20 Theories of Social Exchange and Exchange Networks
• 21 Sociological Rational Choice
• 22 Contemporary Feminist Theory
• 23 Multiculturalism
• 24 Social Theory and the Postmodern
• 25 Michel Foucault: `A Man in Danger'
• 26 The Macro/Micro Problem and the Problem of Structure and Agency
• 27 Norbert Elias and Process Sociology
• 28 Positivism in the Twentieth Century
• 29 Metatheorizing in Sociology
• 30 Cultural Studies and Social Theory: A Critical Intervention
• 31 Theories of Consumption
• 32 Sexualities: Social Theory and the Crisis of Identity
• 33 The Embodied Foundations of Social Theory
• 34 Globalization Theory 2000+: Major Problematics
• 35 Nationalism: Between Nation and State
• 36 Socialism: Modern Hopes, Postmodern Shadows
• 37 Modern Societies as Knowledge Societies
• 38 Sociology, Morality and Ethics: On Being With Others
• 39 Postsocial Relations: Theorizing Sociality in a Postsocial Environment
• Index