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Contemporary Sociological Theory

Contemporary Sociological Theory

Expanding the Classical Tradition
6th Edition

Ruth Wallace, Alison Wolf

Apr 2005, Paperback, 480 pages
ISBN13: 9780131850514
ISBN10: 0131850512
For orders to USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Japan visit your local Pearson website
£62.99
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For one-semester, junior/senior-level courses in Contemporary Sociological Theory.

This text examines the assumptions and concepts of the five major sociological theories and the classical roots of the modern theories. It focuses specifically on functionalism, conflict theory, theories of rational choice, symbolic interactionism, and phenomenology.

1. THE UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIETY.

2. FUNCTIONALISM.

Part One: Talcott Parsons: Grand Theory.
Part Two: Robert K. Merton: Middle-Range Theory.
Part Three: Neofunctionalism.

3. CONFLICT THEORY.

Part One: Conflict Theory and the Critique of Society.
Part Two: Conflict Theory and Analytic Sociology: The Legacy of Max Weber.

4. EVOLUTION AND MODERNITY: MACROSOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES.

Part One: Karl Marx and the Classless Society.
Part Two: Talcott Parsons's Evolutionary Model.
Part Three: Jurgen Habermas: Rationalization and Communicative Action.
Part Four: Anthony Giddens: Structuration Theory and High Modernity.

5. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM.

Part One: George Herbert Mead: The Self.
Part Two: Herbert Blumer: Interpretation and Methodology.
Part Three: Erving Goffman: Dramaturgy and the Interaction Order.
Part Four: Arlie Russell Hochschild and Patricia Hill Collins: Expanding the Horizons of Symbolic Interactionism.

6. PHENOMENOLOGY.

Part One: Harold Garfinkel: The Founder of Ethnomethodology.
Part Two: Peter Berger: The Social Construction of Reality.
Part Three: Dorothy E. Smith: Feminist Standpoint Theory.

7. THEORIES OF RATIONAL CHOICE.

Part One: Rational Choice, Social Exchange, and Individual Behavior.
Part Two: Rational Choice and the Analysis of Social Structure.
Part Three: James Coleman and the Foundations of Social Theory.

8. REDISCOVERING THE BODY: THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE BODY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY.

Part One: The Sociology of the Body.
Part Two: Sociobiology.

9. CONCLUSION: EVALUATING SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY.

Part One: The Future of Sociological Theory: Modernism and Postmodernism.
Part Two: Social Theory and Understanding: The Value of Multiple Perspectives.
Selected Bibliography.
Index.

NEW — Updated research examples that are theoretically driven.

NEW — Examines the functions and dysfunctions of educational institutions.

NEW — Updates the two major themes throughout the book – the role of women in contemporary society and formal education systems that characterize modern society.

    • Material on Neil Smelser in Neofunctionalism section (Ch. 2) and Jeffrey Alexander.
    • Discussion of E.O. Wright's Marxian analysis of US Society (Ch. 3).
    • Material from research using Dorothy Smith's standpoint theory (Ch. 6).
    • A complete section on James Coleman; updated work of other rational choice theorists (Ch. 7).

Includes a chapter on Evolution and Modernity: Macrosociological Perspectives that discusses in depth the evolutionary theories of Karl Marx, Talcott Parsons, Jurgen Habermas, and Anthony Giddens.

Provides feminist contributions and critiques on each major perspective.

~ Introduced a feminist critique of theories that fail to analyze the intersection of class, race, and gender and also discusses Arlie R. Hochschild and Patricia Hill Collins' feminist theory on expansion of symbolic interactionism.

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