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Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- PREFACE -- CONTENTS -- PART I Overview of Contemporary Sociological Theory -- Definitions of the Social -- Explanations of the Social -- The Basic Taxonomy -- Eleven Viewpoints in Contemporary Sociological Theory -- Ecologism -- Demographism -- Materialism -- Psychologism -- Technologism -- Functional Structuralism -- Exchange Structuralism -- Conflict Structuralism -- A Missing Viewpoint -- Symbolic Interactionism -- Social Action and Functional Imperativism -- Four Additional Complications in the Basic Taxonomy -- Unmixed and Mixed Types of Explanandum and Explanans -- Micro and Macro "Levels" of Explanandum and Explanans -- Genetic and Maintenance Explanations -- Change and Stability Explanations -- Conclusions -- PART II Readings in Contemporary Sociological Theory -- 1 ECOLOGISM -- Human Ecology -- Cultural, Behavioral, and Ecological Perspectives in the Study of Social Organization -- 2 DEMOGRAPHISM -- Notes on the Concept of a Population -- 3 MATERIALISM -- The External System -- 4 PSYCHOLOGISM -- The Institutional and the Subinstitutional -- 5 TECHNOLOGISM -- The Hypothesis of Cultural Lag -- Organic Energy and the Low-Energy Society -- 6 FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURALISM -- Social Structure and Anomie -- 7 EXCHANGE STRUCTURALISM -- The Structure of Social Associations -- 8 CONFLICT STRUCTURALISM -- Dialectic and Functionalism: Toward a Theoretical Synthesis -- Toward a Theory of Social Conflict -- 9 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM -- Play, the Game, and the Generalized Other -- Sociological Implications of the Thought of George Herbert Mead -- 10 SOCIAL ACTIONISM -- The Changing Foundations of the Parsonian Action Scheme -- 11 FUNCTIONAL IMPERATIVISM -- Pattern Variables Revisited: A Response to Robert Dubin -- INDEX

This concise text, covers both classical and contemporary social thought. It traces the major schools of thought over the past 150 years as they appear and reappear in different chapters and looks at important new voices in social theory. The treatment of individual theories and theorists is balanced with the development of key themes and ideas about social life

Introducing Sociological Theory offers a comprehensive, navigable and highly readable introduction to the main schools of thought in sociology, along with the philosophical ideas that underpin them. 8 broad theoretical traditions, or perspectives, are explained helping you to recognize the scope and range of sociological theory and to think sociologically and see the social world in different ways. The author skilfully and revealingly engages with each theoretical perspective showing what it actually means, why it utilises certain concepts over others, and how it generates and derives from evo

This book is not an encyclopaedic survey of the most influential or important sociological theories of the 20th century; nor is it an institutional history of sociological theory; it is not a textbook, a distillation of the accumulated knowledge of a particular discipline; nor is it a crib, a set of ready-made and easily-remembered answers to imagined examination questions. It is more of a reader's guide, a series of hints and suggestions for those who, whether students or teachers, believe that sociology is a profession and a discipline but also something more..' - Charles Turner in the intro

Randall Collins convincingly argues that much of Max Weber's work has been misunderstood, and that many of his most striking and sophisticated theories have been overlooked. By analysing hitherto little known aspects of Weber's writings, Professor Collins is able both to offer a new interpretation of Weberian sociology and to show how the more fruitful lines of the Weberian approach can be projected to an analysis of current world issues. Professor Collins begins with Weber's theory of the rise of capitalism, examining it in the light of Weber's later writings on the subject and extending the Weberian line of reasoning to suggest a 'Weberian revolution' in both medieval Europe and China. He also offers a new interpretation of Weber's theory of politics, showing it to be a 'world-system' model; and he expands this into a theory of geopolitics, using as a particular illustration the prediction of the future decline of Russian world power. Another 'buried treasure' in the corpus is Weber's conflict theory of the family as sex and property, which Professor Collins applies to the historical question of the conditions that led to the initial rise in the status of women. The broad view of Weber's works shows that Weberian sociology remains intellectually alive and that many of his theories still represent the frontier of our knowledge about large-scale social processes

Front Cover -- Title Page -- Half-Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1: The Enlightenment: Philosophical Foundations -- Chapter 2: Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) -- Chapter 3: The Romantic-Conservative Reaction -- Chapter 4: Auguste Comte (1798-1857) -- Chapter 5: The Philosophical Orientations of Karl Marx (1818-1883) -- Chapter 6: Marx's Relation to Hegel and Feuerbach -- Chapter 7: Marx's Historical Sociology -- Chapter 8: Max Weber (1864-1920) -- Chapter 9: Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) -- Chapter 10: Gaetano Mosca (1858-1941) -- Chapter 11: Robert Michels (1876-1936) -- Chapter 12: Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) -- Chapter 13: Karl Mannheim (1893-1947) -- Chapter 14: George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) -- Epilogue -- Index -- Back Cover.

""The strengths of this text are the breadth of theories covered; the integration of gender-related topics¾ family, work, religion; the use of substantial quotes from primary texts; the consistent inclusion of methodological issues.…I have no doubt that it will find a solid position in the field of theory texts.""--Kathleen Slobin, North Dakota State University