Social Theory

How do urban ruins provoke their cultural revaluation? This book offers a unique sociological analysis about the social agencies of material cultur...

From Science to Emancipation: Alienation and the Actuality of Enlightenment is the second of three books elaborating Roy Bhaskar’s new philosophy o...

In this influential work, first published in English in 1963, Durkheim and Mauss claim that the individual mind is capable of classification and th...

This lively and controversial collection of essays sets out to theorize and practice a ‘materialist-feminist’ criticism of literature and culture. ...

Designed for students of social policy and women’s studies, this text gives a readable account of the wide range of feminist ideas about women and ...

The sociology of Erving Goffman has inspired generations of sociologists throughout the world. Students and scholars alike have in Goffman’s unsurp...

This book interrogates the philosophical backdrop of Clausewitzian notions of war, and asks whether modern, network-centric militaries can still be...

Citizenship studies is at a crucial moment of globalizing as a field. What used to be mainly a European, North American, and Australian field has n...

An invisible pattern draws together most studies dealing with French cultural radicalism in the 1960s with intellectual creation reduced to individ...

Volume 36 of "Studies in Symbolic Interaction" is solely devoted to the "Blue-Ribbon Papers". Nine papers are published in which hotly-contested is...

Engaging with the idea that the world reveals not one, but many routes to modernity, this volume explores the role of religion in the emergence of ...

The celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall provoked a debate on the outcomes of the transition process in the pos...

This new anthology is a comprehensive introduction to the field of risk theory. The introduction provides the ideal starting point for students and...

In this reissued collection of essays, first published in 1985, Paul Q. Hirst assesses the limits of the Marxist theory of history in its various v...

All sociology is implicitly critical because the sociological perspective questions and debunks what common sense takes for granted. Some sociology...

In this major study, first published in 1988, Professor Kitching builds on recent scholarship on Marx and Wittgenstein to provide an incisive, read...

In this ground-breaking book, the author proposes a new theory of state formation based upon a rethinking of the nexus war, state, and citizenship....

Sports coaching is a social activity. At its heart lies a complex interaction between coach and athlete played out within the context of sport, its...

Feminists have recently begun to challenge the powerful influence of the law on the social and cultural construction of women’s roles, identities, ...

Dissatisfaction with the present can cause people to gaze nostalgically back to an idealized past; that nostalgia pervades contemporary rhetoric. I...

Offering a critique of the humanist paradigm in contemporary social theory, Qualitative Complexity is the first comprehensive sociological analysis...

The death of Peter Winch in 1997 sparked a revived interest in his work with this book arguing his work suffered misrepresentation in both recent l...

From Science to Emancipation: Alienation and the Actuality of Enlightenment is the second of three books elaborating Roy Bhaskar’s new philosophy o...

This important new collection considers Jurgen Habermas's discourse theory from a variety of feminist vantage points. Habermas's theory represents ...

Originally published in 1974. Scientific Knowledge and Sociological Theory centres on the problem of explaining the manifest variety and contrast i...

This book investigates modern global civilization, offering an alternative to post-colonial theories and the "multiple modernities" approach (as we...

First published in 1962, this seminal work is an introduction to sociology in a world context, and a sophisticated guide to the major themes, probl...

Since the time when Talcott Parsons pursued the project of one overarching "general theory of society", the landscape of social theory has vastly c...

The transformation of the human sciences into the social sciences in the third part of the 19th century was closely related to attempts to develop ...

In the 1850s the social and political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville spoke of ‘a virus of a new and unknown kind’ to explain the inexplicable failu...

Cosmpolitan Memory in Europe’s ‘Backwaters’ reconsiders the definitional relationships of ‘national character’ and ‘national heritage’ in the conte...

Jean Baudrillard was one of the most influential, radical, and visionary thinkers of our age. His ideas have had a profound bearing on countless fi...

European and African works have found it difficult to move past the image of Africa as a place of exotica and relentless brutality. This book explo...

This book explores the role of altered states of consciousness in the communication of social and emotional energies, both on a societal level and ...

This original and pioneering study of how men relate to feminism will appeal to all men who are concerned about their response to the women’s movem...

In Ethics and Human Reproduction, Christine Overall blends feminist theory and philosophical expertise to provide a coherent analysis of a range of...

Covering the life, work, ideas and impact of some of the most significant thinkers in sociology, Fifty Key Sociologists: The Formative Theorists co...

Durkheim’s study of socialism, first published in English in 1959, is a document of exceptional intellectual interest and a genuine milestone in th...

First Published in 1988, this volume works towards a new understanding and exploration of the rise and development of modern society, taking its le...

Originally published in 1989, Reclaiming Reality still provides the most accessible introduction to the increasingly influential multi-disciplinary...

Since the late 1990s, development institutions have increasingly used the language of rights in their policy and practice. This special issue on fe...

Zizek argues that the physical violence we see is often generated by the systemic violence that sustains our political and economic systems. With t...

Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies lays down foundations for the analysis of media, information, and information technology in 2...

In Romance and Reason Andrew Koch notes that in the annals of social research the jury is still out on Max Weber. It is for no other reason than We...

In Romance and Reason Andrew Koch notes that in the annals of social research the jury is still out on Max Weber. It is for no other reason than We...

In its second edition, Method in Social Science was widely praised for its penetrating analysis of central questions in social science discourse. T...

The Philosophy of Social Science Reader is an outstanding, comprehensive and up-to-date collection of key readings in the philosophy of social scie...

First published in 1972, this book on Weber's methodological writings is today regarded as a modern classic in its field. In this new expanded edit...