The sociology of conduct is a well-established research field comprising Foucauldian studies on government, power and the individual; sociological approaches to social ordering exemplified in the work of theorists including Max Weber, Norbert Elias and Pierre Bordieu; and the symbolic interactionist work of theorists like G.H. Mead and Erving Goffman. The distinctiveness of this new book, one of three set texts for the new Open University course Making Social Worlds, resides in bringing together canonical sociological figures in a text that is designed to tackle fundamental questions about the social character of ordered and extremely disordered conduct, and which is aimed primarily at undergraduates. The book offers an innovative perspective on how individual behaviour is socially patterned. It draws in part on the massive recent explosion of self-help manuals, television shows, and internet sites designed to produce and sanction particular forms of behaviour. It also taps into the enduring fascination with situations in which extreme and violent conduct is widespread. As such it offers a unique sociological perspective on both mundane, everyday and extreme, exceptional conduct.