Handbook of Social Theory

by George Ritzer

• ISBN13: 9780761941873
• ISBN10: 0761941878
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-07-26
• Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd

Summary

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

Introduction - George Ritzer and Barry Smart

Theorists, Theories and Theorizing

PART ONE: CLASSICAL SOCIAL THEORY

Modernity, Enlightenment, Revolution and Romanticism - John Rundell

Creating Social Theory

The Origins of Positivism - Jonathan H Turner

The Contributions of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer

Maintaining Marx - Gregor McLennan

Max Weber - Sam Whimster

Work and Interpretation

The Continuing Relevance of Georg Simmel - Birgitta Nedelmann

Staking Out Anew the Field of Sociology

Durkheim's Project for a Sociological Science - Mike Gane

The Emergence of the New - Hans Joas

Mead's Theory and Its Contemporary Potential

Karl Mannheim and the Sociology of Knowledge - David Kettler and Volker Meja

Psychoanalysis and Sociology - John O'Neill

From Freudo-Marxism to Freudo-Feminism

Classical Feminist Social Theory - Patricia Madoo Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley

PART TWO: CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORY

Functional, Conflict and Neofunctional Theories - Mark Abrahamson

Talcott Parsons - Robert J Holton

Conservative Apologist or Irreplaceable Icon?

Nietzsche - Robert J Antonio

Social Theory in the Twilight of the Millennium

Critical Theory - Craig Calhoun and Joseph Karaganis

J[um]urgen Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action - Richard Harvey Brown and Douglas Goodman

An Incomplete Project

Symbolic Interactionism at the End of the Century - Kent L Sandstrom, Daniel D Martin and Gary Alan Fine

Phenomenology and Social Theory - Harvie Ferguson

Fundamentals of Ethnomethodology - Wes Sharrock

Theories of Social Exchange and Exchange Networks - Linda D Molm

Sociological Rational Choice - Douglas D Heckathorn

Contemporary Feminist Theory - Mary F Rogers

Multiculturalism - Charles Lemert

Social Theory and the Postmodern - Stephen Crook

Michel Foucault - Mitchell Dean

`A Man in Danger'

The Macro//Micro Problem and the Problem of Structure and Agency - Barry Barnes

Norbert Elias and Process Sociology - Robert van Krieken

PART THREE: ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORY

Positivism in the Twentieth Century - Peter Halfpenny

Metatheorizing in Sociology - Shanyang Zhao

Cultural Studies and Social Theory - Douglas Kellner

A Critical Intervention

Theories of Consumption - George Ritzer, Douglas Goodman and Wendy Wiedenhoft

Sexualities - Anthony Elliott

Social Theory and the Crisis of Identity

The Embodied Foundations of Social Theory - Chris Shilling

Globalization Theory 2000+ - Roland Robertson

Major Problematics

Nationalism - Gerard Delanty

Between Nation and State

Socialism - Peter Beilharz

Modern Hopes, Postmodern Shadows

Modern Societies as Knowledge Societies - Nico Stehr

Sociology, Morality and Ethics - Barry Smart

On Being with Others

Postsocial Relations - Karin Knorr Cetina

Theorizing Sociality in a Post-social Environment