Sociological Theory

First Edition

Bert N. Adams - University of Wisconsin - Madison, Chile, University of Wisconsin, USA
R. A. Sydie - University of Alberta - Edmonton, Canada

Other Titles in:
Social Theory

March 2001 | 672 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

This concise text covers both classical and contemporary social thought. It traces the major schools of thought over the past 150 years as they appear and reappear in different chapters and looks at important new voices in social theory, including 14 female theorists. The treatment of individual theories and theorists is balanced with the development of key themes and ideas about social life, including race, class and gender.

Introduction

PART ONE: THE EUROPEAN ROOTS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

The Origins of Sociological Theory

Saint-Simon, Comte and Martineau

Theorizing after the French Revolution

PART TWO: CONSERVATIVE THEORIES

Spencer and Sumner

Evolutionism and Functionalism

Durkheim

Social Realism and Functionalism Extended

PART THREE: RADICAL THEORY

Marx and Engels

Radical Anti-Capitalism

Lenin and Luxemburg

Marxism Extended

PART FOUR: SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF COMPLEXITY AND FORM

Max Weber and Marianne Weber

Social Action and Societal Complexity

Simmel

The Sociology of Form and Content

PART FIVE: SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Pareto and Michels

Political Sociological Theories

Veblen and Schumpeter

Economic Sociological Theories

PART SIX: OTHER VOICES IN SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIZING

Gilman and Webb

Society and Gender

Du Bois

Sociological Theory and Race

Cooley, Mead and Freud

Society, Self and Mind

PART SEVEN: TWENTIETH-CENTURY FUNCTIONALISM AND BEYOND

Parsons and Merton

Twentieth-Century Functionalism

Luhmann and Giddens

Systems, Structuration and Modernity

PART EIGHT: CRITICISM, MARXISM AND CHANGE

Critical Theory

The Frankfurt School and Habermas

Marxism since 1930

Socio-Cultural Change

Evolution, World Systems and Revolution

PART NINE: TRANSITIONS AND CHALLENGES

Mid-Twentieth-Century Sociology

Blumer, Goffman and Hochschild

Symbolic Interactionism

Coleman

Rational Choice and Exchange

Smith and Collins

Feminist Sociological Theory

Knowledge, Truth and Power

Foucault's Discourse and the Feminist Response

Final Thoughts on Sociological Theorizing

"I like the idea of a more inclusive sociological theory text. It’s good to see the work of women and people of color integrated into this book….As we move beyond telling the story of a fairly homogeneous academic elite, we also begin to make social theory and theorizing more accessible to our increasingly diverse students."

Robert E. L. Roberts

California State University, San Marcos

Put simply, although the theory instructor has the paramount responsibility of acquainting her students with major perspectives/concepts, the academic figures responsible for constructing them and the intellectual and social conditions under which they theorized, she needs a good deal of help. Adams and Sydie’s Sociological Theory is one of those books that provide such prop—a good one for that.

Alem Kebede

California Sate University, Bakersfield

Teaching Sociology

Content is relevant to the particular academic course

Mr Andrew Hicks

Faculty of Social Sciences/Department of Sociology, University of Guyana

June 29, 2015

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