Concise Reader in Sociological Theory - Theorists, Concepts, and Current Applications

Essential writings from classical and contemporary sociological theorists engagingly introduced and brought to life for students
 
This Concise Reader in Sociological Theory contains excerpts from the writings of a wide range of key theorists who represent the dynamic breadth of classical and contemporary, macro- and micro-sociological theory. The selected writings elaborate on the core concepts and arguments of sociological theory, and, along with the commentary, explore topics that resonate today such as: crisis and change, institutions and networks, power and inequality, race, gender, difference, and much more.
 
The text contains editorial introductions to each section that clearly explain the intellectual context of the theorists and their arguments and reinforce their relevance to sociological analysis and society today. The excerpts include writings from the classicists Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, W.E.B. Du Bois to the contemporary Patricia Hill Collins, Dorothy Smith, Raewyn Connell. This indispensable book:
* Offers a concise review of the diverse field of sociological theory
* Includes contributions from a wide range of noted classical and contemporary theorists
* Incorporates engaging empirical examples from contemporary society
* Demonstrates the relevance and significance of the ideas presented in the theorists' writings
 
Designed for undergraduate and graduate students in sociology and in social and political theory, Concise Reader in Sociological Theory is an engaging and accessible guide to the most relevant sociological theorists.

List of contents

Introduction 1
 
Part I Classical Theorists 7
 
1 Karl Marx 9
 
1A Karl Marx from Wage Labour and Capital 12
 
II 13
 
1B Karl Marx and Frederick Engels from Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 17
 
Profit of Capital 19
 
1C Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels from The German Ideology 27
 
2 Emile Durkheim 31
 
2A Emile Durkheim from The Rules of Sociological Method 34
 
What is a Social Fact? 34
 
II 37
 
2B Emile Durkheim from Suicide: A Study in Sociology 41
 
3 Max Weber 47
 
3A Max Weber from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 50
 
Religious Affiliation and Social Stratification 50
 
3B Max Weber from Economy and Society 65
 
The Definition of Sociology and of Social Action 65
 
Types of Social Action 71
 
3C Max Weber from Essays in Sociology 75
 
Bureaucracy 75
 
Structures of Power 77
 
Class, Status, Party 78
 
The Sociology of Charismatic Authority 80
 
Science as a Vocation 83
 
Part II Structural Functionalism, Conflict, and Exchange Theories 89
 
4 Structural Functionalism 91
 
4A Robert K. Merton from On Social Structure and Science 94
 
The Ethos of Science 94
 
Universalism 94
 
"Communism" 95
 
Disinterestedness 95
 
Organized Skepticism 97
 
5 Conflict and Dependency Theories 99
 
5A Ralf Dahrendorf from Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society 101
 
5B Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto from Dependency and Development in Latin America 107
 
Theory of Dependency and Capitalistic Development 107
 
6 Social Exchange 111
 
6A Peter M. Blau from Exchange and Power in Social Life 113
 
6B James S. Coleman from Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital 116
 
Social Capital 116
 
Human Capital and Social Capital 118
 
Forms of Social Capital 118
 
6C Paula England from Sometimes the Social Becomes Personal: Gender, Class, and Sexualities 120
 
Defining Terms 121
 
Explaining the Gender Differences 123
 
Part III Symbolic Interaction, Phenomenology, and Ethnomethodology 129
 
7 Symbolic Interaction 131
 
7A George H. Mead from Mind, Self & Society 134
 
From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist 134
 
7B Erving Goffman from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life 136
 
Introduction 136
 
8 Phenomenology 141
 
8A Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann from The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge 143
 
The Reality of Everyday Life 143
 
Origins of Institutionalization 147
 
9 Ethnomethodology 159
 
9A Harold Garfinkel from Studies in Ethnomethodology 161
 
Practical Sociological Reasoning: Doing Accounts in "Common Sense Situations of Choice" 161
 
9B Sarah Fenstermaker and Candace West from Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Inequality, Power, and Institutional Change 166
 
"Difference" as an Ongoing Interactional Accomplishment 166
 
Common Misapprehensions 168
 
The Dynamics of Doing Difference 169
 
Part IV Major Postwar European Influences On Sociological Theory 173
 
10 Critical Theory: The Frankfurt School 175
 
10A Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno from Dialectic of Enlightenment 179
 
10B Jurgen Habermas from The Theory of Communicative Action: Reason and the Rationalization of Society 184
 
11 Pierre Bourdieu 189
 
11A Pierre Bourdieu from The Forms of Capital 191
 
Cultural Capital 193

About the author

MICHELE DILLON is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, USA, and was educated at University College Dublin, Ireland, and the University of California, Berkeley, USA. She has many years of experience teaching sociological theory to undergraduate and graduate students, and, among a wide range of publications, she is the author of Introduction to Sociological Theory, Third Edition (Wiley, 2020).

Summary

Essential writings from classical and contemporary sociological theorists engagingly introduced and brought to life for students

This Concise Reader in Sociological Theory contains excerpts from the writings of a wide range of key theorists who represent the dynamic breadth of classical and contemporary, macro- and micro-sociological theory. The selected writings elaborate on the core concepts and arguments of sociological theory, and, along with the commentary, explore topics that resonate today such as: crisis and change, institutions and networks, power and inequality, race, gender, difference, and much more.

The text contains editorial introductions to each section that clearly explain the intellectual context of the theorists and their arguments and reinforce their relevance to sociological analysis and society today. The excerpts include writings from the classicists Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, W.E.B. Du Bois to the contemporary Patricia Hill Collins, Dorothy Smith, Raewyn Connell. This indispensable book:
* Offers a concise review of the diverse field of sociological theory
* Includes contributions from a wide range of noted classical and contemporary theorists
* Incorporates engaging empirical examples from contemporary society
* Demonstrates the relevance and significance of the ideas presented in the theorists' writings

Designed for undergraduate and graduate students in sociology and in social and political theory, Concise Reader in Sociological Theory is an engaging and accessible guide to the most relevant sociological theorists.

Product details

• Authors: M Dillon, Michele Dillon
• Assisted by: Michel Dillon (Editor), Michele Dillon (Editor), Dillon Michele (Editor)
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2020
• EAN: 9781119536185
• ISBN: 978-1-119-53618-5
• No. of pages: 336
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Anthropologie, Soziologie, Gesellschaftstheorie, Anthropogeographie, Geographie, Sociology, Geography, Social Theory, Anthropology, Social & cultural anthropology, Human Geography, Soziale u. kulturelle Anthropologie