Contemporary Sociological Theory

Browse Return to Previous Page       Related Subjects All Subjects Political Science/Sociology

Edited by Craig Calhoun, Joseph Gerteis, James Moody and Steven Pfaff

Blackwell Publishers

Due/Published June 2002, 468 pages, paper

ISBN 0631213503

This collection of contemporary sociological theory offers a guide to current perspectives and approaches in the field. Organized by theme, the volume includes the most representative material available on topics such as symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, structuralism, network theory, critical theory, feminist theory, and the current debates over modernity and postmodernity. The theories of Foucault, Giddens, and Bourdieu also appear in longer sections and editorial introductions put these readings into theoretical perspective, making this an authoritative and compact survey of contemporary sociological theory.

Contents

List of Contributors.
Acknowledgments.
Introduction.
Part I: Micro-Sociological Analysis:
Introduction to Part I.
1. The Phenomenology of the Social World: Alfred Schutz.
2. The Social Construction of Reality: Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann.
3. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life: Erving Goffman.
4. Symbolic Interactionism: Herbert Blumer.
Part II: Exchange and Rationality:
Introduction to Part II.
5. Social Behavior as Exchange: George C. Homans.
6. Exchange and Power in Social Life: Peter M. Blau.
7. Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital: James S. Coleman.
8. Foundations for a Theory of Collective Decisions: James S. Coleman.
9. The Logic of Collective Action: Mancur Olson.
Part III: Institutional Analysis:
Introduction to Part III.
10. Limits of Steering: Niklas Luhmann.
11. Coercion, Capital, and European States: Charles Tilly.
12. The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields: Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell.
Part IV: The Sociological Theory of Michel Foucault:
Introduction to Part IV.
13. The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception: Michel Foucault.
14. Truth and Power: Michel Foucault.
15. Discipline and Punish: Michel Foucault.
Part V: The Sociological Theory of Anthony Giddens:
Introduction to Part V.
16. Some New Rules of Sociological Method: Anthony Giddens.
17. Agency, Structure: Anthony Giddens.
18. The Consequences of Modernity: Anthony Giddens.
Part VI: The Sociological Theory of Pierre Bourdieu:
Introduction to Part VI.
19. Social Space and Symbolic Space Pierre Bourdieu.
20. Structures, Habitus, Practices: Pierre Bourdieu.
21. The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed: Pierre Bourdieu.
Part VII: Race, Gender, and Difference:
Introduction to Part VII.
22. The Conceptual Practices of Power: Dorothy E. Smith.
23. Black Feminist Epistemology: Patricia Hill Collins.
24. Black Skin, White Masks: Frantz Fanon.
25. The Paradoxes of Integration: Orlando Patterson.
Part VIII: The Sociological Theory of Jurgen Habermas:
Introduction to Part VIII.
26. Civil Society and the Political Public Sphere: Jürgen Habermas.
27. The Tasks of a Critical Theory of Society: Jürgen Habermas.
28. Theory and Practice: Jürgen Habermas.
Part IX: Modernity and Post-Modernity:
Introduction to Part IX.
29. The Social Constraint towards Self-constraint: Norbert Elias.
30. A Sociological Theory of Postmodernity of Postmodernity: Zygmunt Bauman.
31. Describing the Future: Niklas Luhmann