Description
The new edition of the definitive undergraduate guide to contemporary sociological theory, with updated reading selections throughout
The fourth edition of Contemporary Sociological Theory offers a thorough introduction to current perspectives and approaches in sociology and social science. Covering a broad range of essential topics, this comprehensive volume provides students with the foundation necessary for understanding the theoretical underpinnings of present-day debates in the diverse field. In-depth yet accessible readings address micro-sociological analysis, symbolic interactionism, network theory, phenomenology, critical theory, structuralism, feminist theory, and more.
This classic text is fully revised to incorporate the most representative and up-to-date material, including new readings addressing debates on gender, power, and inequality. New editorial introductions clarify and contextualize the selected readings, while up-to-date examples highlight connections to today’s theoretical discussions. This authoritative survey of contemporary sociological theory:
- Presents substantial primary source texts with detailed introductions, rather than brief excerpts and basic overviews
- Examines the sociological theories of Foucault, Giddens, Bourdieu, and Habermas
- Discusses debates over modernity and postmodernity, crisis and change, and race and difference
- Provides historical and intellectual perspective to each selected reading in the book
- Includes extensive references to further readings and resources
Contemporary Sociological Theory, Fourth Edition provides the depth of coverage students require for undergraduate courses in social and sociological theory as well as courses in wider social science programs such as human geography, anthropology, criminology, and urban studies. In combination with its complement Classical Sociological Theory, Fourth Edition, Contemporary Sociological Theory remains the most complete overview of sociological theory available.
Table of Contents
Notes on the Editors ix
Acknowledgements x
General Introduction 1
Part I Symbolic Action 27
Introduction to Part I 29
1 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life) 36
Erving Goffman
2 Symbolic Interactionism (from Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method) 51
Herbert Blumer
3 Interaction Ritual Chains (from Interaction Ritual Chains) 62
Randall Collins
Part II Structure and Agency 77
Introduction to Part II 79
4 A Theory of Group Solidarity (from Principles of Group Solidarity) 88
Michael Hechter
5 Metatheory: Explanation in Social Science (from Foundations of Social Theory) 100
James S. Coleman
6 Catnets (from Notes on the Constituents of Social Structure) 112
Harrison White
7 Some New Rules of Sociological Method (from New Rules For Sociological Method) 123
Anthony Giddens
Part III Institutions 129
Introduction to Part III 131
8 Economic Embeddedness 136
Mark Granovetter
9 The Iron Cage Revisited 145
Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell
Part IV Power and Inequality 161
Introduction to Part IV 163
10 The Power Elite (from The Power Elite) 172
C. Wright Mills
11 Durable Inequality (from Durable Inequality) 179
Charles Tilly
12 Power: A Radical View (from Power: A Radical View) 186
Steven Lukes
13 Societies as Organized Power Networks (from The Sources of Social Power, Vol I. A History of Power from the Beginning to A.D. 1760) 196
Michael Mann
Part V The Sociological Theory of Michel Foucault 213
Introduction to Part V 215
14 The History of Sexuality (from The History of Sexuality, Vol I: An Introduction) 220
Michel Foucault
15 Discipline and Punish (from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison) 229
Michel Foucault
Part VI The Sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu 237
Introduction to Part VI 239
16 Social Space and Symbolic Space (from “Social Space and Symbolic Space: Introduction to a Japanese Reading of Distinction”) 248
Pierre Bourdieu
17 Structures, Habitus, Practices (from The Logic of Practice) 257
Pierre Bourdieu
18 The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed 270
Pierre Bourdieu
19 Rethinking the State: Genesis and Structure of the Bureaucratic Field (from Rethinking the State: Genesis and Structure of the Bureaucratic Field) 286
Pierre Bourdieu
Part VII Race, Gender, and Intersectionality 297
Introduction to Part VII 299
20 The Theory of Racial Formation (from Racial Formation in the United States) 308
Michael Omi and Howard Winant
21 Intellectual Schools and the Atlanta School (from The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology) 318
Aldon D. Morris
22 The Paradoxes of Integration (from The Ordeal of Integration: Progress and Resentment in Americas “Racial” Crisis) 329
Orlando Patterson
23 The Conceptual Practices of Power (from The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge) 337
Dorothy E. Smith
24 Black Feminist Epistemology (from Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment) 345
Patricia Hill Collins
25 Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex 354
Kimberle Crenshaw
26 Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological Research 363
Hae Yeon Choo and Myra Marx Ferree
27 The Politics of Erased Migrations 373
Rocio R. Garcia
Part VIII The Sociological Theory of Jürgen Habermas 385
Introduction to Part VIII 387
28 Modernity: An Unfinished Project (from Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity) 395
Jürgen Habermas
29 The Rationalization of the Lifeworld (from The Theory of Communicative Action Volume 2: Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason) 401
Jürgen Habermas
30 Civil Society and the Political Public Sphere (from Between Facts and Norms: Contribution to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy) 417
Jürgen Habermas
Part IX Modernity 431
Introduction to Part IX 433
31 The Social Constraint towards Self-Constraint (from The Civilizing Process: The History of Manners and State Formation and Civilization) 439
Norbert Elias
32 We Have Never Been Modern (from We Have Never Been Modern) 449
Bruno Latour
33 The Civil Sphere (from The Civil Sphere) 462
Jeffrey C. Alexander
34 Addressing Recognition Gaps: Destigmatization and the Reduction of Inequality (from American Sociological Review) 472
Michèle Lamont
Part X Crisis and Change 487
Introduction to Part X 489
35 The Modern World-System in Crisis (from World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction) 498
Immanuel Wallerstein
36 Conceptualizing Simultaneity 510
Peggy Levitt and Nina Glick Schiller
37 Nationalism (from Nationalism) 519
Craig Calhoun
38 The End May Be Nigh, But For Whom? (from Does Capitalism Have a Future?) 529
Michael Mann
Index 544
