French Social Theory

by Mike Gane

• ISBN13: 9780761968306
• ISBN10: 076196830X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-06
• Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd

Summary

No national tradition of social theory has been more seductive to Anglo-American readers than the French.There has been a long-standing fascination with French ideas and debates. This extraordinarily accomplished book, written by one of Britain's leading commentators on social theory, provides a peerless account of the French tradition.The book: provides a systematic account of French social theory from the aftermath of the French Revolution (St Simon, Bazard and Comte) to the contemporary scene dominated by Kristeva, Deleuze, Bourdieu and Baudrillard; divides French social theory into three logically coherent cycles: 1800-80 (positivist); 1880-1940 (anthropological); 1940-2000 (Marxist); provides a detailed guide to the three phases of postwar French social theory - existential, structural and post-structural; and situates the discussions of individuals and schools in the relevant social and political contexts. The book is a masterpiece of erudition and scholarship but is written throughout in an engaging and informative style. It will be required reading for anyone interested in social theory and sociology.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	x
The First Cycle, 1800--1879 The Birth of Social Theory: Altruism	1	(44)
The Post-revolutionary Void	3	(7)
Sacrificial Theory and the Sociology of Modernity	10	(16)
Theory in Crisis: Religion and the Subjective	26	(11)
The End of the First Cycle: Scholasticism	37	(8)
The Second Cycle, 1880--1939 The First Rebirth of Social Theory: Anomie	45	(54)
Social Theory Reborn	47	(13)
French Society: Vanguard without a Norm	60	(13)
Method in Crisis and the Resort to Theory in Suicide	73	(11)
End of Second Cycle: Anthropology and Religion	84	(15)
The Third Cycle, 1940--2000 The Second Rebirth of Social Theory: Hypertelia	99	(76)
Existential Theory	101	(12)
The Algerian War	113	(12)
From Pathology to Normativity	125	(12)
Structural Theory	137	(15)
Radical Theory and the End of the Social	152	(10)
Fin-de-cycle: Time of Counter-Strategies	162	(13)
Conclusion	175	(16)
Conclusion: Social Theory at the End of the Social	177	(14)
References	191	(9)
Index	200