Synopses & Reviews
Social theory has undergone dramatic changes over the past fifteen years. The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive survey of those changes, and an authoritative statement on current trends of development in social thought. The contents of the book range in a systematic way across the major traditions of social theory prominent today. Among the topics covered are the relationships between modern social theory and the 'classics' of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the connections between social theory and mathematical social science; and the logical status of generalizations in the social sciences. Traditions of thought discussed include: behaviourism; symbolic interactionism; Parsonian theory; analytical theory; structuralism and post-structuralism; ethnomethodology; structuration theory; world systems theory; Marxism and critical theory.
Table of Contents
Introduction Anthony Giddens and Jonathan H. Turner; 1. The centrality of the classics Jeffrey C. Alexander; 2. Behaviourism and after George C. Homans; 3. Symbolic interactionism Hans Joas; 4. Parsonian theory today: in search of a new synthesis Richard Münch; 5. Analytical theorizing Jonathan H. Turner; 6. Structuralism, post-structuralism and the production of culture Anthony Giddens; 7. Ethnomethodology John C. Heritage; 8. Structuration theory and social Praxis Ira J. Cohen; 9. World-systems analysis Immanuel Wallerstein; 10. Class analysis Ralph Miliband; 11. Critical theory Axel Honneth; 12. Sociology and the mathematical method Thomas P. Wilson; Index.