Download or read book The Making of Social Theory written by Anthony Thomson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Making of Social Theory: Order, Reason, and Desire, second edition, chronicles the development of Western ideas about society and social life from the medieval period through to the rise of modern sociology in the early twentieth century. Theories are examined within a historical socialcontext to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the social circumstances in which various sociological ideologies arose. The new second edition retains its unique coverage of pre-Enlightenment ideas and features new material on Marxism in the twenty century and a chapter dedicated totracing the evolution of social democracy through Pareto and Mannheim. Taking a uniquely interdisciplinary approach, The Making of Social Theory examines the links between the classical and contemporary worlds, allowing students to see how classical social theory has helped to shape the ideas oftoday.
Download or read book Social Theory for Today written by Alex Law and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2014-12-01 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is distinctive for extending the usual sociological reach, reopening territory that has lain fallow, set aside from the well-ploughed fields of orthodox social theory. In doing so, Law not only produces fresh insight into familiar theorists but guards against collective forgetting of the sociological canon. - Professor Bridget Fowler, University of Glasgow "An excellent book, it will be welcomed and read widely by advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars in sociology, cultural studies, social theory and beyond." - Professor Chris Shilling, University of Kent Social Theory for Today guides students through the ‘turns’ of past and present social theory as it attempts to wrestle with a recurring sense of crisis in social relations and social theory. Drawing on both classical and contemporary sources, Alex Law provides readers with a firm grasp of competing perspectives. Too often social theories attempt to dominate the field by casting rival theorists, past and present, as deluded fools, while the more familiar ‘big names’ in social theory are subject to ever-increasing commentary that runs in ever-decreasing circles. This survey of social theory and crisis lessens the temptation to engage in internal theoretical polemics and esoteric wordplay. Social theory must become practical and specific if it is to become a means of orientation for uncertain times. This is a must-read for upper level undergraduate and postgraduate students looking for a vibrant and extended understanding of social theory.
Download or read book History and Social Theory written by Peter Burke and published by Polity. This book was released on 2005 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking into account new developments since this book was first published, 'History and Social Theory' discusses topics including globalization, postcolonialism and social capital.
Download or read book Visualising Worlds written by Martyn Hudson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-08-19 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the social production of our world, of the worlds of the past and of the worlds of the future, considering the ways in which worlds are created in both actuality and imagination. Bringing together central concepts of classical sociology, including social change, transformation, individuation, collectivisation and human imagination and practice, it draws lessons from the collapse of Graeco-Roman antiquity for our own world of virus and ecological disasters, considers the genesis of capitalism and intimates its ending. Rooted in classical sociology yet challenging its traditions and objects of study, Visualising Worlds: World-Making and Social Theory adopts new ways of thinking about visuality, aesthetics and how we ‘see’ social worlds, and how we then begin to build them. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in social theory, historical sociology, cultural studies, critical theory, archaeology, and the emergence, change and collapse of civilisations.
Download or read book Social Work and Social Theory written by Paul Michael Garrett and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to work effectively, social workers need to understand theoretical concepts and develop critical theory. In Social Work and Social Theory, Paul Michael Garrett seeks to bring the profession into dialogue with the anticapitalist movement and encourages a new engagement with theorists such as Antonio Gramsci, Pierre Bourdieu, and Nancy Fraser. It provides an accessible and exhilarating introduction for practitioners, students, and social work academics interested in social theory and critical social policy. It will be a vital resource aiding anyone intent on creating a more radical social work and a useful teaching tool to spark lively classroom discussion.
Download or read book The Making of Social Theory written by Anthony Thomson and published by Don Mills, Ont. : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foundations of Social Theory is an introduction to social thought beginning with the intellectual transformation of the western world at the end of the first Christian millennium and ending with the rise of critical social thought in the 20th century.
Download or read book Making History written by Alex Callinicos and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2004-07-01 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This republication gives a new generation of readers access to an important intervention in Marxism and social theory. Making History is about the question of how human agents draw their powers from the social structures they are involved in.
Download or read book Social Theory written by Hans Joas and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-09 with total page 1088 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social theory is the theoretical core of the social sciences, clearly distinguishable from political theory and cultural analysis. This book offers a unique overview of the development of social theory from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the present day. Spanning the literature in English, French and German, it provides an excellent background to the most important social theorists and theories in contemporary sociological thought, with crisp summaries of the main books, arguments and controversies. It also deals with newly emerging schools from rational choice to symbolic interactionism, with new ambitious approaches (Habermas, Luhmann, Giddens, Bourdieu), structuralism and antistructuralism, critical revisions of modernization theory, feminism and neopragmatism. Written by two of the world's leading sociologists and based on their extensive academic teaching, this unrivalled work is ideal both for students in the social sciences and humanities and for anyone interested in contemporary theoretical debates.
Download or read book Rethinking Social Theory written by Roger Sibeon and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2004-03-27 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identifies and explores unresolved controversies and ambiguities in present day sociological theorizing.
Download or read book Making Sense of Social Theory written by Charles H. Powers and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making Sense of Social Theory opens by carefully exploring what it means to follow the scientific method in a field like sociology. The author goes on to analyze sociology as a genuine science with a body of explanatory insights. It does this by (a) considering the major insights of key thinkers (including Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and Mead, among others), (b) distinguishing different analytical frameworks (especially exchange, symbolic interactionism, conflict, and structural-functionalism) in terms of their underlying assumptions, and (c) revealing compelling social science explanatory insights in the form of predictive principles that can be applied in understanding processes of change at work in the social world (from face-to-face encounters to major historical trends). Sociological theory is applied in ways that make its relevance and power apparent. In reading this book, theory no longer stands divorced from real-world research or practice. Making Sense of Social Theory clearly establishes the pertinence of sociology's great theoretical insights for all social science researches and practitioners. Book jacket.
Download or read book Using Social Theory written by Michael Pryke and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2003-09-03 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chapters in this innovative guide share a common belief that thinking alongside ideas is an integral part of the research process. This book encourages the researcher to think through three key moments of the research process: the production of a research question; fieldwork; and analysis and writing.
Download or read book The Body and Social Theory written by Chris Shilling and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2003 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for the First Edition: `Essential to any collection of work on the body, health and illness, or social theory' - Choice `Sophisticated … and acutely perceptive of the importance of the complex dialectic between social institutions, culture and biological conditions' - Times Higher Education Supplement `Chris Shilling has done us all a splendid service in bringing together and illustrating the tremendous diversity and richness of sociological thinking on the topic of human embodiment and its implications' - Sociological Review This updated edition of the bestselling text retains all the strengths of the first edition. Chris Shilling: provides a critical survey of the field; demonstrates how developments in diet, sexuality, reproductive technology, genetic engineering and sports science have made the body a site for social alternatives and individual choices; and elucidates the practical uses of theory in striking and accessible ways. In addition, new, original material: explores the latest feminist, phenomenological and action-oriented approaches to the body; examines the latest work on `body projects' and the relationship between the body and self-identity; and outlines a compelling theoretical framework that provides a radical basis for the consolidation of body studies.
Download or read book From Anthropology to Social Theory written by Arpad Szakolczai and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-17 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting a ground-breaking revitalization of contemporary social theory, this book revisits the rise of the modern world to reopen the dialogue between anthropology and sociology. Using concepts developed by a series of 'maverick' anthropologists who were systematically marginalised as their ideas fell outside the standard academic canon, such as Arnold van Gennep, Marcel Mauss, Paul Radin, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl and Gregory Bateson, the authors argue that such concepts are necessary for understanding better the rise and dynamics of the modern world, including the development of the social sciences, in particular sociology and anthropology. Concepts discussed include liminality, imitation, schismogenesis and trickster, which provide an anthropological 'toolkit' for readers to develop innovative understandings of the underlying power mechanisms of globalized modernity. Aimed at graduate students and researchers, the book is clearly structured. Part I introduces the 'maverick' anthropologists, while Part II applies the maverick tool-kit to revisit the history of sociological thought and the question of modernity.
Download or read book Social Theory and Modern Sociology written by Anthony Giddens and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book Anthony Giddens addresses a range of issues concerning current developments in social theory, relating them to the prospects for sociology in the closing decades of the twentieth century. Composed of closely integrated papers, all written over the past few years, the book includes seven essays not previously published, plus two have not appeared in English before. In assessing the likely future evolution of sociology in particular, and the social sciences in general, the author both draws upon ideas established in his more abstract theoretical writings and examines critically competing traditions of thought. Those looking for an accessible introduction to Gidden's writing will find in this book a set of clear expositions of his basic ideas. By situating these ideas in relation to the critical assessment of the views of others, however, the author provides new sources of insight into the distinctiveness of his own claims.
Download or read book The Art of Social Theory written by Richard Swedberg and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A practical guide to the art of theorizing in the social sciences In the social sciences today, students are taught theory by reading and analyzing the works of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and other foundational figures of the discipline. What they rarely learn, however, is how to actually theorize. The Art of Social Theory is a practical guide to doing just that. In this one-of-a-kind user's manual for social theorists, Richard Swedberg explains how theorizing occurs in what he calls the context of discovery, a process in which the researcher gathers preliminary data and thinks creatively about it using tools such as metaphor, analogy, and typology. He guides readers through each step of the theorist’s art, from observation and naming to concept formation and explanation. To theorize well, you also need a sound knowledge of existing social theory. Swedberg introduces readers to the most important theories and concepts, and discusses how to go about mastering them. If you can think, you can also learn to theorize. This book shows you how. Concise and accessible, The Art of Social Theory features helpful examples throughout, and also provides practical exercises that enable readers to learn through doing.
Download or read book Social Theory written by Daniel W. Rossides and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1998 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social Theory: Its Origins, History, and Contemporary Relevance analyzes the tradition of social theory in terms of its origins and changes in kind of societies. Rossides provides a full discussion of the sociohistorical environments that generated Western social theory with a focus on the contemporary modern world. While employing a sociology of knowledge approach that identifies theories as aristocratic versus democratic, liberal versus socialist and also liberal feminist versus radical feminist; it attempts to construct a scientific, unified social theory in the West. Additionally, it also features African American theory, American culture studies, political and legal philosophy, and environmental theory.
Download or read book Contemporary Social Theory written by Roger A. Salerno and published by Prentice Hall. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores how social theory relates to our everyday experiences Contemporary Social Theory helps students explore, describe, and discuss how social theory relates to their own experiences, popular culture, and the world in which they live. It advances the view that new theory can be effectively used to assess social and cultural phenomena. The text identifies the important intellectual movements, categories, and paradigms that have occurred in the study of social theory. It also looks at issues closely related to contemporary social theory, such as: the postmodern condition, globalization, postcolonialism, inequality, gender, race, and human sexuality. Learning Goals: Upon completing this book, readers will be able to: Explore how contemporary social theory relates to their everyday lives Identify important intellectual movements, categories, and paradigms of the study of social theory Understand how social and intellectual challenges have resulted in new theories Note: MySearchLab does not come automatically packaged with this text. To purchase MySearchLab, please visit: www.mysearchlab.com or you can purchase a valuepack of the text + MySearchLab (at no additional cost): ISBN-10: 0205208746 / ISBN-13: 9780205208746.
