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Author: John K. Rhoads
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271040059
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394
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Book Description
Critical Issues in Social Theory is an analytical survey of persistent controversies that have shaped the field of sociology. It defines, clarifies, and proposes solutions to these "critical issues" through commentary on the writings of such influential social theorists as Hobbes, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Mead, Merton, Parsons, and Schutz. Instead of being just another history, or another classification of theories, Rhoads's four-part model allows him to focus attention on issues that remain at the core of sociological theory today. First, Rhoads analyzes the controversy over positivism as the proper methodological model for the study of human society. Is there one science, of which sociology is a branch, or do the peculiarities of sociology's subject matter require a modification of the scientific method borrowed from the natural sciences? Rhoads next considers the relationship of individuals to society and its structures. Does society have a mode of existence distinct from its members, or is it merely an abstraction derived from the characteristics of individuals? Third, a discussion of social order raises the question of whether social order is the consequence of rules and their underlying moral values, or the product of continuous construction based on self-interest. Finally, the relative importance of consensus and conflict in social relationships is addressed. Is society better understood as a community united by beliefs, values, and rules, or is the social dynamic of continual conflict over beliefs, values, and rules more fundamental? In coming to grips with these issues, the author in some instances takes sides and in others arrives at a synthesis of diverse perspectives. In the final chapter he points to the limitations on the possibility of rational action that come to light in the clashes over these basic issues.
Author: John K. Rhoads
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271040059
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394
Get Book
Book Description
Critical Issues in Social Theory is an analytical survey of persistent controversies that have shaped the field of sociology. It defines, clarifies, and proposes solutions to these "critical issues" through commentary on the writings of such influential social theorists as Hobbes, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Mead, Merton, Parsons, and Schutz. Instead of being just another history, or another classification of theories, Rhoads's four-part model allows him to focus attention on issues that remain at the core of sociological theory today. First, Rhoads analyzes the controversy over positivism as the proper methodological model for the study of human society. Is there one science, of which sociology is a branch, or do the peculiarities of sociology's subject matter require a modification of the scientific method borrowed from the natural sciences? Rhoads next considers the relationship of individuals to society and its structures. Does society have a mode of existence distinct from its members, or is it merely an abstraction derived from the characteristics of individuals? Third, a discussion of social order raises the question of whether social order is the consequence of rules and their underlying moral values, or the product of continuous construction based on self-interest. Finally, the relative importance of consensus and conflict in social relationships is addressed. Is society better understood as a community united by beliefs, values, and rules, or is the social dynamic of continual conflict over beliefs, values, and rules more fundamental? In coming to grips with these issues, the author in some instances takes sides and in others arrives at a synthesis of diverse perspectives. In the final chapter he points to the limitations on the possibility of rational action that come to light in the clashes over these basic issues.
Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520039759
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308
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Book Description
"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
Author: Raymond Allen Morrow
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791422526
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 540
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Book Description
This book summarizes and critiques theories of social and cultural reproduction as they relate to sociology of education.
Author: Barbara Adam
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761964698
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244
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Book Description
Risk society and beyond traces the evolution of Ulrich Beck's ideas as expressed in Risk Society (1992) and expands into previously unforeseen risk areas, such as genetics and cyberspace.
Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520039750
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
"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
Author: Biggs, Simon
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
ISBN: 0335209068
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
This work covers theoretical developments and issues influencing the study of adult ageing. It explores contemporary trends in social policy drawing on the experience of ageing in the USA, Europe and an increasingly global environment. Feminist perspectives on ageing are also covered.
Author: Berch Berberoglu
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1461710936
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217
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Book Description
This book provides a critical analysis of classical and contemporary social theory from a class perspective. It is concise, lucid, and well written.
Author: Patricia Hill Collins
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
ISBN: 9781478005421
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
In Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory Patricia Hill Collins offers a set of analytical tools for those wishing to develop intersectionality's capability to theorize social inequality in ways that would facilitate social change. While intersectionality helps shed light on contemporary social issues, Collins notes that it has yet to reach its full potential as a critical social theory. She contends that for intersectionality to fully realize its power, its practitioners must critically reflect on its assumptions, epistemologies, and methods. She places intersectionality in dialog with several theoretical traditions—from the Frankfurt school to black feminist thought—to sharpen its definition and foreground its singular critical purchase, thereby providing a capacious interrogation into intersectionality's potential to reshape the world.
Author: Thomas S. Popkewitz
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415922401
Category : Critical pedagogy
Languages : en
Pages : 276
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Book Description
First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Author: Damian White
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137524251
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
From climate change to fossil fuel dependency, from the uneven effects of natural disasters to the loss of biodiversity: complex socio-environmental problems indicate the urgency for cross-disciplinary research into the ways in which the social, the natural and the technological are ever more entangled. This ground breaking text moves between environmental sociology and environmental geography, political and social ecology and critical design studies to provide a definitive mapping of the state of environmental social theory in the age of the anthropocene. Environments, Natures and Social Theory provokes dialogue and confrontation between critical political economists, actor network theorists, neo-Malthusians and environmental justice advocates. It maps out the new environmental politics of hybridity moving from hybrid neo-liberals to end times ecologists, from post environmentalists to cyborg eco-socialists. White, Rudy and Gareau insist on the necessity of a critical but optimistic hybrid politics, arguing that a more just, egalitarian, democratic and sustainable anthropocene is within our grasp. This will only be brought into being, however, by reclaiming, celebrating and channeling the reconstructive potential of entangled hybrid humans as inventive hominids, creative gardeners, critical publics and political agents. Written in an accessible style, Environments, Natures and Social Theory is an essential resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students across the social sciences.
