{"product_id":"social-theory-9780521690881","title":"Social Theory","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn unrivalled overview of social theory and its development. Two of the world's leading sociologists provide 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 in the English, French and German literature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Social Theory does a remarkable job of making a complex and sometimes difficult subject matter into a clear and continuously interesting book. Without claiming a false neutrality Joas and Knöbl combine exposition and criticism in a way that is consistently fair even to positions that are farthest from their own. This should be an indispensable book for at least a generation.' Robert N. Bellah, University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of Habits of the Heart\u003cbr\u003e'Possibly the most comprehensive and critical analysis of the development of Social Theory in the second half of the twentieth century - bringing together European and American developments showing their common roots in the classical problematique and the continual development thereof.'  S. N. Eisenstadt, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Van Leer Jerusalem Institute\u003cbr\u003e'… this fascinating book will provide a wealth of conceptual resources for a long time.' Sociologica\u003cbr\u003e'Hans Joas and Wolfgang Knöbl's Social Theory: Twenty Introductory Lectures is a remarkable book. There is nothing that I know that comes anywhere near to it in the contemporary landscape of social theory. [It] is, in addition to other things, an intellectually heavyweight textbook for graduate students and professors, providing a summation of, and critical commentary on, virtually all the major and minor currents in social theory since the middle of the twentieth century.' Rob Stones, Journal of Classical Sociology\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction; 1. What is theory?; 2. The classical attempt at synthesis: Talcott Parsons; 3. Parsons on the road to normativist functionalism; 4. Parsons and the elaboration of normativist functionalism; 5. Neo-utilitarianism; 6. Interpretive approaches (1): symbolic interactionism; 7. Interpretive approaches (2): ethnomethodology; 8. Conflict sociology and conflict theory; 9. Habermas and critical theory; 10. Habermas' 'theory of communicative action'; 11. Niklas Luhmann's radicalization of functionalism; 12. Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration and the new British sociology of power; 13. The renewal of Parsonianism and modernization theory; 14. Structuralism and poststructuralism; 15. Between structuralism and theory of practice: the cultural sociology of Pierre Bourdieu; 16. French anti-structuralists (Cornelius Castoriadis, Alain Touraine and Paul Ricoeur); 17. Feminist social theories; 18. A crisis of modernity? New diagnoses (Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman, Robert Bellah, and the debate between liberals and communitarians); 19. Neopragmatism; 20. How things stand; Bibliography.","brand":"Cambridge University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51767718543703,"sku":"9780521690881","price":39.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780521690881.jpg?v=1758714543","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/social-theory-9780521690881","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}