Understanding Modern Sociology

by Wes Sharrock

• ISBN13: 9780761957065
• ISBN10: 0761957065
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-04-22
• Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd

Summary

From the team that brought you the bestselling Understanding Classical Sociology (SAGE Publications, 1995), we now have a companion volume dealing with the modern period of social theory. An introductory chapter situates the reader in the main changes in society and sociology following the classic period. This is then followed by separate chapters giving a detailed account of four perspectives that are regarded to be of seminal importance - Functionalism, Critical Theory, Structuralism and Symbolic Interactionism. All of the popular features of Understanding Classical Sociology are reproduced in this book: ? Clarity of exposition and criticism ? A passion for the importance and relevance of sociological reasoning and explanation ? A commitment to treat social theory as a living tradition of thought In addition, the volume comes with a variety of pedagogic aids including summary points and key definitions to facilitate learning and study. This is a book that enhances the sociological imagination. It draws on the authors deep understanding and experience of teaching the subject over many decades. It will be welcomed by lecturers as a vital new teaching and research aid, and students will be stimulated and enriched by the unfussy and reliable advice on doing sociology that it imparts.

Table of Contents

The Background to Modern Sociology	1	(14)
The schooling of sociology	3	(1)
The repoliticisation of sociology	4	(5)
The rediscovery of European social thought	9	(2)
Some consequences	11	(2)
Select bibliography and further reading	13	(2)
Functionalism	15	(44)
Early functionalist thought in British anthropology	16	(2)
Parsons' functionalism	18	(5)
The social system	23	(9)
A picture of society	32	(1)
The pattern variables	33	(2)
The four-phase model	35	(5)
Applying the framework	40	(3)
Parsons' functionalism and the analysis of social change	43	(3)
Merton's functionalism	46	(2)
The fate of functionalism	48	(8)
Select bibliography and further reading	56	(3)
The Frankfurt School and Critical Theory	59	(45)
Central themes of Critical Theory	62	(9)
Capitalism, culture and social inquiry	71	(6)
Culture against humanity	77	(3)
The critique of positivism	80	(9)
The critique of the culture of capitalism	89	(8)
Resurgence	97	(4)
Select bibliography and further reading	101	(3)
Structuralism	104	(46)
The debt to Marx, Freud and Saussure	105	(5)
The contribution of Claude Levi-Strauss	110	(13)
The analysis of myth	123	(3)
Roland Barthes: the oppression of culture	126	(6)
Jacques Lacan: the return to Freud	132	(5)
Louis Althusser: the return to Marx	137	(1)
Marx's break with ideology and the move to science	138	(7)
The aftermath and the move to post-structuralism	145	(3)
Select bibliography and further reading	148	(2)
Interactionism	150	(50)
G.H. Mead's `social psychology'	152	(7)
The early years of the Chicago School	159	(1)
The social reform tradition	160	(5)
Herbert Blumer: the formulation of symbolic interactionism	165	(8)
Everett Hughes and the study of work	173	(5)
Deviance	178	(6)
A view of society	184	(2)
The next generation	186	(4)
Erving Goffman	190	(2)
Recent work in symbolic interactionism	192	(5)
Select bibliography and further reading	197	(3)
Concluding Remarks	200	(5)
Select bibliography and further reading	204	(1)
Bibliography	205	(11)
Index	216