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Key Concepts in Classical Social Theory
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Key Concepts in Classical Social Theory

  • Alex Law - University of Abertay, Dundee


December 2010 | 240 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
"I think this will prove to be a very useful text for undergraduate students. Alex Law has produced a comprehensive list of key classical social theory concepts and provides an accessible account of the meaning of central terms, their place in the work of the classical analysts considered and the contemporary significance of their ideas. In addition he has offered useful additional reading guidance from which students will derive considerable benefit."
- Barry Smart, University of Portsmouth

This book's individual entries introduce, explain and contextualise the key topics within classical social theory. Definitions, summaries and key words are developed throughout with careful cross-referencing allowing students to move effortlessly between core ideas and themes. Each entry provides:
  • clear definitions
  • lucid accounts of key issues
  • up-to-date suggestions for further reading
  • informative cross-referencing.

Relevant, focused and accessible this book will provide students across the social sciences with an indispensible guide to the central concepts of classical social theory.

 
Introduction: Classical Social Theory
 
Alienation
 
Anomie
 
Base and Superstructure
 
Bureaucracy
 
Capital
 
Civil Society
 
Class
 
Class, Status and Party
 
Collective Effervescence
 
Collective Representations
 
Commodity Fetishism
 
Conscience Collective
 
Division of Labour (Smith and Ferguson)
 
Division of Labour (Marx)
 
Division of Labour in Society (Durkheim)
 
Fashion
 
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
 
Historical Materialism
 
Ideal-Types
 
Ideology
 
Legitimate Domination
 
Mechanical and Organic Solidarity
 
Metropolis
 
Mode of Production
 
Modernity
 
Money
 
Normal and Pathological
 
Positivism
 
Primitive Accumulation
 
Protestant Ethic and the 'Spirit of Capitalism'
 
Rationality and Rationalization
 
Sacred and Profane
 
Social Action
 
Social Facts
 
Social Forms and Sociation
 
Social Morphology
 
Social Space
 
Suicide
 
Totemism
 
Value Freedom
 
Verstehen

A well structured, and clearly and elegantly written introduction to classical sociological theory. The concepts are well explained and well organised.

Dr Stephen Brown
School of Applied Social Sciences, Brighton University
March 24, 2011
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Sample Materials & Chapters

Introduction: Classical Social Theory


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