Download or read book Theoretical Thinking in Sociology written by William Skidmore and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1979-12-27 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sociological theory has typically been studied in three types of courses: history of sociological thought, modern sociological perspectives, and philosophy of science. Theoretical Thinking in Sociology is a book that combines all three of these approaches and covers four main themes in sociological theory - exchange theory, functionalism, symbolic interaction and ethnomethodology. Although each theory takes a different approach to the task of explaining social order, all are presented with an emphasis on theoretical thinking. In addition to outlining these theories, the author describes in detail the theoretical problems faced by leading sociological theorists and their solutions to them, and presents theory as a creative intellectual development. The book reviews significant problems from the history of theory in sociology, and discusses research literature and the relationship of this research to its theoretical field. Each chapter of this 1979 second edition ends with a summary, topics for discussion, essay questions, and suggestions for further reading.
Download or read book Theory for the Working Sociologist written by Fabio Rojas and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theory for the Working Sociologist makes social theory easy to understand by revealing sociology's hidden playbook. Fabio Rojas argues that sociologists use four different theoretical "moves" when they try to explain the social world: how groups defend their status, how people strategically pursue their goals, how values and institutions support each other, and how people create their social reality. Rojas uses famous sociological studies to illustrate these four types of theory and show how students and researchers may apply them to their interests. The guiding light of the book is the concept of the "social mechanism," which clearly and succinctly links causes and effects in social life. Drawing on dozens of empirical studies that define modern sociology and focusing on the nuts and bolts of social explanation, Rojas reveals how areas of study within the field of sociology that at first glance seem dissimilar are, in fact, linked by shared theoretical underpinnings. In doing so, he elucidates classical and contemporary theory, and connects both to essential sociological findings made throughout the history of the field. Aimed at undergraduate students, graduate students, journalists, and interested general readers who want a more formal way to understand social life, Theory for the Working Sociologist presents the underlying themes of sociological thought using contemporary research and plain language.
Download or read book Handbook of Classical Sociological Theory written by Seth Abrutyn and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-11-01 with total page 714 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first handbook focussing on classical social theory. It offers extensive discussions of debates, arguments, and discussions in classical theory and how they have informed contemporary sociological theory. The book pushes against the conventional classical theory pedagogy, which often focused on single theorists and their contributions, and looks at isolating themes capturing the essence of the interest of classical theorists that seem to have relevance to modern research questions and theoretical traditions. This book presents new approaches to thinking about theory in relationship to sociological methods.
Download or read book Individualism Holism and the Central Dilemma of Sociological Theory written by Jiří Šubrt and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2019-05-13 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines individualism and holism, the two interpretive perspectives that have divided sociological theory into two camps, examines attempts to overcome this antinomy and sets out a new approach to resolving this dilemma via ‘critical reconfigurationism’.
Download or read book Thinking Through Theory written by John Levi Martin and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Good Book in Theory written by Alan Sears and published by University of Toronto PressHigher education. This book was released on 2005 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is designed to introduce readers to the joys and challenges of theoretical thinking. It begins by encouraging reflection of informal everyday theorizing, showing that theoretical thinking is an important feature of human activity. A focus on key themes?the politics of the classroom, the notion of what is "real," what is "natural," and how time is measured?allows Sears to draw out important elements of social theory in a way that makes it relevant and interesting to students. Creative exercises bring the issues to life and help hone critical thinking and writing skills. In the process, Sears offers an engaging and accessible guide through the complex world of social theory and lays a solid foundation for further study. Special Combined Price: A Good Book, In Theory: A Guide to Theoretical Thinking may be ordered together with Social Theory: Continuity and Confrontation, second edition at a special discounted price. In order to secure the package price, the following ISBN must be used when ordering: 978-1-55402-291-5. Academics please note that this is a title classified as having a restricted allocation of complimentary copies. Restricted titles remain available to adopters and to academics very likely to adopt in the coming semester. When adoption possibilities are less strong and/or further in the future, academics are requested to purchase the title, with the proviso that UTP Higher Education will happily refund the purchase price if the book is indeed adopted.
Download or read book Social Theory Now written by Claudio E. Benzecry and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-08-14 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The landscape of social theory has changed significantly over the three decades since the publication of Anthony Giddens and Jonathan Turner’s seminal Social Theory Today. Sociologists in the twenty-first century desperately need a new agenda centered around central questions of social theory. In Social Theory Now, Claudio E. Benzecry, Monika Krause, and Isaac Ariail Reed set a new course for sociologists, bringing together contributions from the most distinctive?sociological?traditions?in an ambitious survey of where social theory is today and where it might be going. The book?provides a strategic window onto social theory based on current research, examining trends in classical traditions and the cutting edge of more recent approaches. From distinctive theoretical positions, contributors address questions about?how social order is accomplished; the role of materiality, practice, and meaning; as well as the conditions for the knowledge of the social world. The theoretical traditions presented include cultural sociology, microsociologies, world-system theory and post-colonial theory, gender and feminism, actor network and network theory, systems theory, field theory, rational choice, poststructuralism, pragmatism, and the sociology of conventions. Each chapter introduces a tradition and presents an agenda for further theoretical development. Social Theory Now is an essential tool for sociologists. It will be central to the discussion and teaching of contemporary social theory?for years to come.
Download or read book Purpose Meaning and Action written by K. McClelland and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Control Systems Theory, a newly developing theoretical perspective, starts from an important insight into human behaviour: that people attempt to control the world around them as they perceive it. This book brings together for the first time the work of prominent sociologists contributing to the development of this wideranging theoretical paradigm.
Download or read book Weberian Sociological Theory written by Randall Collins and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1986-02-28 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new interpretation of Weberian sociology, showing its relevance to current world isues.
Download or read book Southern Theory written by RAEWYN. CONNELL and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-31 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Southern Theory presents the case for a radical re-thinking of social science and its relationships to knowledge, power and democracy on a world scale. Mainstream social science pictures the world as understood by the educated and affluent in Europe and North America. From Weber and Keynes to Friedman and Foucault, theorists from the global North dominate the imagination of social scientists, and the reading lists of students, all over the world. For most of modern history, the majority world has served social science only as a data mine. Yet the global South does produce knowledge and understanding of society. Through vivid accounts of critics and theorists, Raewyn Connell shows how social theory from the world periphery has power and relevance for understanding our changing world from al-Afghani at the dawn of modern social science, to Raul Prebisch in industrialising Latin America, Ali Shariati in revolutionary Iran, Paulin Hountondji in post-colonial Benin, Veena Das and Ashis Nandy in contemporary India, and many others. With clarity and verve, Southern Theory introduces readers to texts, ideas and debates that have emerged from Australia's Indigenous people, from Africa, Latin America, south and south-west Asia. It deals with modernisation, gender, race, class, cultural domination, neoliberalism, violence, trade, religion, identity, land, and the structure of knowledge itself. Southern Theory shows how this tremendous resource has been disregarded by mainstream social science. It explores the challenges of doing theory in the periphery, and considers the role Southern perspectives should have in a globally connected system of knowledge. Southern Theory draws on sociology, anthropology, history, psychology, economics, philosophy and cultural studies, with wide-ranging implications for social science in the 21st century.
Download or read book Outline of a Theory of Practice written by Pierre Bourdieu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1977-06-02 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through Pierre Bourdieu's work in Kabylia (Algeria), he develops a theory on symbolic power.
Download or read book Introduction to Social Issues First Edition written by Stephanie Southworth and published by Cognella Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-02 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theory and Application in Sociology: Readings on Contemporary Issues introduces readers to overarching theoretical paradigms in sociology through current, high-interest readings in the dis-cipline. Selected from a variety of sources, each reading engages students in thinking about the social world from a particular theoretical perspective and helps them understand how that perspec-tive is then applied. The reading selections explore social issues in the United States that students see and hear about every day, such as poverty, homelessness, education, healthcare, the environment, and crime. The material illustrates the ways in which these larger societal occurrences and policies impact students' life experiences and opportunities. Students learn how race, class, and gender shape their interaction in the world, and how different sociologists view those interactions based on their different sociological perspective. Effectively linking real-world experiences to both theory and scholarship, Theory and Application in Sociology is an excellent choice for sociology courses, as well as those in social justice and public policy. Stephanie Southworth is a lecturer at Coastal Carolina University, where she teaches courses such as race and ethnicity, social problems, and introduction to sociology. She earned her Ph.D. in public policy and her M.A. in sociology from University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has presented papers at numerous conferences nationwide and has had work published in several journals, such as Research in Higher Education and Youth and Society.
Download or read book Modern Reconstruction of Classical Thought Talcott Parsons written by Jeffrey Alexander and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-03 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume the author maintains that sociology must learn to combine the insights of both Durkheim and Marx and that it can only do so on the presuppositional ground that Weber set forth. Alexander maintains that the idealist and materialist traditions must be transformed into analytic dimensions of multidimensional and synthetic theory. This volume focusses on the writing of Talcott Parsons, the only modern thinker who can be considered a true peer of the classical founders, and examines his own profoundly ambivalent attempt to carry out this analytic transformation.
Download or read book Logics of History written by William H. Sewell Jr. and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-07-27 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While social scientists and historians have been exchanging ideas for a long time, they have never developed a proper dialogue about social theory. William H. Sewell Jr. observes that on questions of theory the communication has been mostly one way: from social science to history. Logics of History argues that both history and the social sciences have something crucial to offer each other. While historians do not think of themselves as theorists, they know something social scientists do not: how to think about the temporalities of social life. On the other hand, while social scientists’ treatments of temporality are usually clumsy, their theoretical sophistication and penchant for structural accounts of social life could offer much to historians. Renowned for his work at the crossroads of history, sociology, political science, and anthropology, Sewell argues that only by combining a more sophisticated understanding of historical time with a concern for larger theoretical questions can a satisfying social theory emerge. In Logics of History, he reveals the shape such an engagement could take, some of the topics it could illuminate, and how it might affect both sides of the disciplinary divide.
Download or read book Chaos Complexity and Sociology written by Raymond A. Eve and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1997-06-12 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a collection of articles which examine the emerging myths and theories surrounding the study of chaos and complexity. Useful to sociologists and others interested in chaos and complexity theory, this title focuses on methodological matters, and also presents conceptual models and applications.
Download or read book Modern Social Theory written by Ian Craib and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-12 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The revised edition of this widely acclaimed textbook provides a clear, accessible and comprehensive introduction to modern social theory.As with the first edition, the book is based around the themes of structure and action. After the introductory chapters which examine the nature of theory and its role in the social world, the book then turns to theories of action and the inability of those theories to comprehend social structures in a coherent way.Part 1 covers: Parson's structural-functionalism and the development of conlict theory and neofunctionalism; rational choice theory; symbolic interactionism; ethnomethodology and structuration theory.Part 2 looks at structuralism, structuralist Marxism, and the development of post-structuralist and postmodernist theory.Part 3 examines Critical Theory and the work of Jurgen Habermas.In conclusion, Ian Craib discusses current trends in theory and what might be expected in the future.This second edition has been revised throughout. There are new chapters on rational choice theory and structuration theory and existing chapters have been extended to deal with the development of neofunctionalism, postmodernism and the recent works of Habermas as well as recent developments in other approaches.Throughout, the aim of the book is to demystify a diffcult subject area, emphasising the practical and everyday nature of theoretical thinking in the context of making sense of a rapidly changing world. The late Ian Craib was Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex.
Download or read book Central Problems in Social Theory written by Anthony Giddens and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1979-11-29 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "One of the most creative among the younger generation of critical social theorists, Giddens stands alone in his concern for the classical tradition on sociology; but he also makes brilliant use of the latest philosophical and theoretical work of several contemporary schools and disciplines. A very important book for all of social science."—Jeffrey C. Alexander
