1. Introduction
Part I Classical Background to Contemporary Theory
2. Classical Grand Theories
Auguste Comte: The Law of the Three Stages
Biographical Sketch
BOX: Key Concept: Positivism
Emile Durkheim: From Mechanical to Organic Solidarity
Biographical Sketch
BOX: Key Concept: Social Facts
BOX: A Neat Distinction: The Sacred and the Profane
Herbert Spencer: Compounding and from Militant to Industrial Society
Biographical Sketch
BOX: An Unfortunate Idea: Survival-of-the-Fittest
Karl Marx: From Capitalism to Communism
Biographical Sketch
BOX: A Key Concept: Dialectical Materialism
Max Weber: The Rationalization of Society
Biographical Sketch
BOX: Key Concepts: The Ideal Type and the Ideal-Typical Bureaucracy
Georg Simmel: The Growing Tragedy of Culture
Biographical Sketch
Thorstein Veblen: From Industry to Business
Biographical Sketch
BOX: Key Concepts: Conspicuous Leisure and Conspicuous Consumption
3. Classical Theories of Everyday Life
Max Weber: Social Action
BOX: Key Concept: Verstehen
Georg Simmel: Association
BOX: Key Concept: Secrecy
George Herbert Mead: Social Behaviorism
Biographical Sketch
Other Key Ideas Associated with the Chicago School
Biographical Sketch: Charles Horton Cooley
Talcott Parsons: Action Theory
Biographical Sketch
Alfred Schutz; The Lifeworld
Biographical Sketch
Part II Contemporary Theory
4. Modern Theoretical Portraits of the Social World
Structural Functionalism
The Functional Theory of Stratification and Its Critics
Talcott Parsons's Structural Functionalism
Robert Merton's Structural Functionalism
Biographical Sketch
Conflict Theory
The Work of Ralf Dahrendorf
Niklas Luhmann's General System Theory
Autopoietic Systems
Society and Psychic Systems
Differentiation
5. Modern Grand Theories
A Structural Functional Theory of Change: Talcott Parsons on Social Evolution
Neo-Marxian Theory
Critical Theory and the Emergence of the “Culture Industry”
Monopoly Capitalism: The Changing Nature of the Capitalist Economy
From Fordism to Post-Fordism
Rational Choice Theory: James Coleman and the Rise of the Corporate Actor
Biographical Sketch
Micro-Macro Analysis: Norbert Elias and the Civilizing Process
Biographical Sketch
Analyzing Modernity: Jurgen Habermas and the Colonization of the Life World
Biographical Sketch
Analyzing Modernity: Anthony Giddens' “Juggernaut” and Ulrich Beck's Risk Society
Biographical Sketch: Anthony Giddens
Analyzing Modernity: George Ritzer's “McDonaldization of Society”
Analyzing Modernity: Manuel Castells' Informationalism and the Network Society
6. Modern Theories of Everyday Life
Dramaturgy (And Other Aspects of Symbolic Interaction): Erving Goffman
Biographical Sketch
Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis: Harold Garfinkel
Biographical Sketch
Exchange Theory: George Homans
Biographical Sketch
Rational Choice Theory: James Coleman
The Everyday World from a Feminist Perspective
Modernity, Identity and Intimacy: Anthony Giddens
7. Modern Integrative Theories
The Micro Foundations of Macrosociology
Autobiographical Sketch: Randall Collins
The Work of Richard Emerson and His Disciples on a More Integrated Exchange Theory
Biographical Sketch: Richard Emerson
Toward a More Integrative Rational Choice Theory: James Coleman
Structuration Theory: Anthony Giddens
Culture and Agency: Margaret Archer
Habitus and Field: Pierre Bourdieu
Biographical Sketch: Pierre Bourdieu
Colonization of the Life-World: Jurgen Habermas
An Integrated Feminist Sociological Theory
8. Modern Feminist Grand Theory
The Basic Theoretical Questions
Contemporary Feminist Grand Theories
Gender Difference
Cultural Feminism
Explanatory Theories
Existential and Phenomenological Analyses
Gender Inequality
Liberal Feminism
Biographical Sketch: Jessie Bernard
Gender Oppression
Psychoanalytic Feminism
Radical Feminism
Biographical Sketch: Dorothy E. Smith
Structural Oppression
Socialist Feminism
Intersectionality Theory
Biographical Sketch: Patricia Hill Collins
9. Postmodern Grand Theories
Toward Postmodern Grand Narratives: Daniel Bell and the Transition from Industrial to Post-Industrial Society
Postmodern Analysis: Michel Foucault and Increasing “Governmentality”
Biographical Sketch
From Modern to Postmodern: Zygmunt Bauman
Postmodern Analysis: Jean Baudrillard's Rise of Consumer Society, Loss of “Symbolic
Exchange” and Increase in “Simulations”
Postmodern Analysis: The Consumer Society and the New Means of Consumption
Biographical Sketch: George Ritzer
Feminism and Postmodern Social Theory
10. Cutting Edge Developments in Contemporary Theory
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