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This is a draft of a chapter that has been accepted for publication by Oxford University Press in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies edited by Renée Marlin-Bennett. DOI:10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.371

Taking the contemporary debate about the status of political sociology as a starting point, the article presents some of the alternative views, and discusses the relationships between sociology and political science. It claims that, despite persistent controversies, looking into the research tradition of political sociology is a useful resource to grasp the identity of the sub-discipline. Accordingly, the author takes the relationship between state and society as the central issue that everywhere cuts across theoretical and methodological diversity. Finally, the text takes the nation-state as the most typical configuration of the relationship between state and society in modern history, and one that remains so in the present, despite the many historical and analytical challenges we observe today.

"This comprehensive and authoritative Encyclopedia, featuring entries written by academic experts in the field, explores the diverse topics within the discipline of political sociology. By looking at both macro- and micro-components, questions relating to nation-states, political institutions and their development, and the sources of social and political change such as social movements and other forms of contentious politics, are raised and critically analysed. The Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Sociology highlights the key questions relating to political sociology through demonstrating that issues relating to power and political conflict, as well as the relationship between societies and states, are critical for understanding contemporary political and social contexts. The entries also shed light on the current position of this interdisciplinary field of study, which sits at the interface between political science and sociology, and consider its aims in addressing those aspects that pertain to the critical interplay between factors relating to both fields. A timely and stimulating reference work, this Encyclopedia will be a key resource for researchers and students in the field of political sociology, political science and theory, social policy, social theory, and public policy, providing both an excellent entry point for study as well as an essential reference tool for more experienced academics. Key Features: Discusses major approaches and theories Summarising key topics in over 160 entries Includes entries on key historical thinkers and concepts Presents frontier areas across the discipline for future research work"--

This essay reviews works in (political) sociology that offer alternatives to sociology-as-usual. Sociologists with even fleeting awareness of the recent history of political sociology are surely familiar with the cultural turn, the global turn, and the turn toward complexity; however, another turn seems to be afoot, one toward existential concerns that direct us to recover how people experience 'the complex contradictions of the social and political world' (Taylor, The New Political Sociology, p. 197). Complex experiences often leave behind residues or 'traces,' and contributors in a recently edited volume challenge sociologists to unlock the social significance of these traces and find new ways to capture what our methods capture so poorly, namely, popular forgettings, geographies of exclusion, and the slow erasure of deeds, memories, and other subjugated knowledges belonging to individuals who find themselves dismissed, dispelled, or disenfranchised by nation-states. Traces left behind by individuals navigating the complexities of contemporary experiments in human 'being' are just the sort of analysis that must, in principle, place the actor at the center of analysis, and, after careful study, we now appreciate that despite the analytical ease of assuming that actors are singular, sociologists should examine actors as plural and unearth their essential multiplicity.

Front Matter -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- Introduction to the Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Sociology -- 1. Age and generation -- 2. Alienation -- 3. Anarchism -- 4. Authoritarian and totalitarian regimes -- 5. Biopolitics -- 6. Bourdieu, Pierre -- 7. Bureaucracy -- 8. Capitalism -- 9. Citizenship -- 10. Civic engagement -- 11. Civic voluntarism -- 12. Civil disobedience -- 13. Civil society -- 14. Civil wars -- 15. Class -- 16. Class consciousness and class struggle -- 17. Class voting -- 18. Cleavages -- 19. Clientelism -- 20. Coalition formation -- 21. Collective action -- 22. Comparativehistorical sociology -- 23. Comparative political economy -- 24. Comparative political sociology -- 25. Conflict theory -- 26. Constructivism -- 27. Contentious politics -- 28. Corporatism and neo-corporatism -- 29. Decommodification -- 30. Democracy -- 31. Democratization -- 32. De Tocqueville, Alexis -- 33. Discrimination -- 34. Durkheim, Emile -- 35. Economic voting -- 36. Emotions -- 37. Empowerment -- 38. Environmentalism -- 39. Ethnicity -- 40. Ethnocentrism -- 41. Europeanization -- 42. Euroscepticism -- 43. Exploitation -- 44. Extreme right -- 45. Factionalism -- 46. Feminism -- 47. Field theory -- 48. Foucault, Michel -- 49. Framing/frame analysis -- 50. Frankfurt School -- 51. Functionalism -- 52. Gender -- 53. Globalization -- 54. Governance -- 55. Governmentality -- 56. Gramsci, Antonio -- 57. Group consciousness -- 58. Identity -- 59. Ideology -- 60. Inequality (political) -- 61. Institutionalism -- 62. Interest groups -- 63. Intersectionality -- 64. Left/right -- 65. Legitimacy -- 66. Liberalism -- 67. Libertarianism and authoritarianism -- 68. Lifestyle politics -- 69. Marx, Karl -- 70. Marxism and neo-Marxism -- 71. Mass media -- 72. Memory (collective) -- 73. Michels, Robert -- 74. The micro-macro link -- 75. Migration.