Key Ideas in Sociology

by Kivisto, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780761988236
• ISBN10: 0761988238
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-02
• Publisher: Pine Forge Press

Summary

With each passing generation, contemporary members of society are intrigued by how those who lived before them viewed and dealt with their changing world. Newer generations borrow ideas from their predecessors and adapt those ideas to new circumstances in order to define and manage social change. Key Ideas in Sociology, Second Edition explores some of the major ideas that have developed out of this tradition and evaluates their origins, their development, and their relevance at the dawn of the twenty-first century.The book follows the course of key concepts that have shaped sociological discourse from the founding period in the nineteenth century to the present, and examines four key ideas that have played a central role-industrial society, democracy, individualism, and modernity. Author Peter Kivisto brings these concepts alive by connecting them to the legendary figures responsible for developing, revising, and expanding sociological theory.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 - Key Ideas About the Social World

Conceptualizing Contemporary Society

Careers of Ideas

Key Ideas and the Field of Sociology

Tools for Understanding Social Trends

Chapter 2 - Industrial Society: From the Satanic Mills to the Computer Age

The Industrial Revolution

Karl Marx: The Permanent Exile

Marxism After Marx

Counterimages of Capitalist Industrial Society: Shifts in the Class Structure

Daniel Bell on the Advent of Postindustrial Society

Summary

Chapter 3 - Democracy: From the Fall of the Bastille to the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Max Weber: Prophet, Pessimist, and Realist

Talcott Parsons on the Democratic Prospect

Capitalism Versus Democracy? Lipset and Beyond

Critical Theory of Jürgen Habermas

Summary

Chapter 4 - Individualism: The Tension Between Me and Us

Alexis de Tocqueville on Individualism

Ferdinand Toennies on Community

Émile Durkheim and the Quest for Community

Durkheim in America

Summary

Chapter 5 - Modernity: From the Promise of Modern Society to Postmodern Suspicions

Modernity and Postmodernity: Provisional Definitions

The Ambiguous Legacy of Georg Simmel

Robert E. Park and the Chicago School

Postmodernism and Sociological Theory

Anthony Giddens and the Late Modern Age

Summary

Chapter 6 - Globalization: Key Ideas in a Global Framework

The Need to Think Globally

The Lasting Impact of the Sociological Tradition

References

Index