The Sociology of Anthony Giddens

by Loyal, Steven

• ISBN13: 9780745317809
• ISBN10: 0745317804
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-20
• Publisher: Pluto Press

Summary

Anthony Giddens is one of the most famous and influential sociologists of recent decades. Largely credited with the concept of the 'Third Way', he continues to be a key advisor to Tony Blair, and is generally presented as an exponent of liberalism and socialism. He was the 1999 BBC Reith lecturer and he has been Professor of Sociology at Cambridge University since 1986.This original and controversial book provides an excellent introduction to Giddens' work, covering the wide range of his writing from theory to self-reflexivity, modernity and politics, placing them all within the illuminating framework of a historical context.Steven Loyal argues that Giddens' writing has always embodied a political and ethical position, one that has changed considerably over the years and is best understood through the social context in which it was written. Giddens' work in the 1970s attempted to marry liberalism and socialism, but, following the collapse of Communism in the 1990 East-European revolutions, his worldview became liberal rather than socialist, and his later work on reflexivity and the 'Third Way' embodies this. Loyal explores how this world-view accounts for many tensions and failures in Giddens' theory and that, overall, his work is fundamentally flawed.

Author Biography

Steven Loyal is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at University College Dublin.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vi
Acknowledgements	vii
Introduction	1	(3)
1 The Political and Sociological Project	4	(25)
2 Knowledge and Epistemology	29	(22)
3 Agency	51	(20)
4 Social Structure	71	(22)
5 Time, Space and Historical Sociology	93	(22)
6 Modernity	115	(14)
7 Rationality and Reflexivity	129	(18)
8 Politics and the Third Way	147	(27)
9 An Alternative Sociology	174	(13)
10 Conclusion	187	(2)
Notes	189	(33)
Bibliography	222	(12)
Index	234