Rethinking Sociological Theory
Rethinking Sociological Theory

Author: Stephen K. Sanderson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-11-17

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1317252780

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Stephen K. Sanderson s latest book recaptures a scientific theoretical sociology, one whose fundamental aim is the formulation of real theories that can be empirically tested. Sanderson reviews the major theoretical traditions within contemporary sociology, explicating their key principles, critically evaluating these principles and their applications, and showcasing exemplars. He judges each tradition by asking whether it has generated falsifiable research programs. Although principally a work of theoretical critique, "Rethinking Sociological Theory" is also a valuable textbook for both undergraduate and graduate courses in sociological theory."

Rethinking Social Theory
Rethinking Social Theory

Author: Roger Sibeon

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2004-03-27

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9780761950691

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Identifies and explores unresolved controversies and ambiguities in present day sociological theorizing.

Critical Social Theory and the End of Work
Critical Social Theory and the End of Work

Author: Edward Granter

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-22

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1317157028

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Critical Social Theory and the End of Work examines the development and sociological significance of the idea that work is being eliminated through the use of advanced production technology. Granter’s engagement with the work of key American and European figures such as Marx, Marcuse, Gorz, Habermas and Negri, focuses his arguments for the abolition of labour as a response to the current socio-historical changes affecting our work ethic and consumer ideology. By combining history of ideas with social theory, this book considers how the 'end of work' thesis has developed and has been critically implemented in the analysis of modern society. This book will appeal to scholars of sociology, history of ideas, social and cultural theory as well as those working in the fields of critical management and sociology of work.

Rethinking Europe
Rethinking Europe

Author: Gerard Delanty

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9780415347143

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The book examines major social transformations in Europe from the perspective of social theory. It offers an intriguing alternative to studies of the EU which emphasise the replacement of the nation-state by a supra-national authority.

Forms of Explanation
Forms of Explanation

Author: Alan Garfinkel

Publisher:

Published: 1981

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 9780300049022

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What makes one explanation better than another? How can we tell when an explanation has really answered our question? In a lively and readable discussion, Garfinkel argues that the key to understanding an explanation is to discover what question is really being answered. He then suggests criteria for a good explanation and goes on to examine some classic explanations in social and natural science.

From Anthropology to Social Theory
From Anthropology to Social Theory

Author: Arpad Szakolczai

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-01-17

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1108423809

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A rethinking of contemporary social theory that provides a vision about the modern world through key ideas developed by 'maverick' anthropologists.

What Is a Person?
What Is a Person?

Author: Christian Smith

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2010-09-15

Total Pages: 529

ISBN-13: 0226765938

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What is a person? This fundamental question is a perennial concern of philosophers and theologians. But, Christian Smith here argues, it also lies at the center of the social scientist’s quest to interpret and explain social life. In this ambitious book, Smith presents a new model for social theory that does justice to the best of our humanistic visions of people, life, and society. Finding much current thinking on personhood to be confusing or misleading, Smith finds inspiration in critical realism and personalism. Drawing on these ideas, he constructs a theory of personhood that forges a middle path between the extremes of positivist science and relativism. Smith then builds on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, and William Sewell to demonstrate the importance of personhood to our understanding of social structures. From there he broadens his scope to consider how we can know what is good in personal and social life and what sociology can tell us about human rights and dignity. Innovative, critical, and constructive, What Is a Person? offers an inspiring vision of a social science committed to pursuing causal explanations, interpretive understanding, and general knowledge in the service of truth and the moral good.

Rethinking Durkheim and his Tradition
Rethinking Durkheim and his Tradition

Author: Warren Schmaus

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-06-21

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1139454625

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This book offers a reassessment of the work of Emile Durkheim in the context of a French philosophical tradition that had seriously misinterpreted Kant by interpreting his theory of the categories as psychological faculties. Durkheim's sociological theory of the categories, as revealed by Warren Schmaus, is an attempt to provide an alternative way of understanding Kant. For Durkheim the categories are necessary conditions for human society. The concepts of causality, space and time underpin the moral rules and obligations that make society possible. A particularly interesting feature of this book is its transcendence of the distinction between intellectual and social history by placing Durkheim's work in the context of the French educational establishment of the Third Republic. It does this by subjecting student notes and philosophy textbooks to the same sort of critical analysis typically applied only to the classics of philosophy.

The International Political Sociology of Security
The International Political Sociology of Security

Author: Trine Villumsen Berling

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-02-11

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 1317524802

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This book builds a theoretical approach to the intractable problem of theory/practice in international relations (IR) and develops tools to study how theory and practice ‘hang together’ in international security. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s political sociology, the book argues that theory and practice take part in struggles over basic understandings (doxa) in international fields through what the book calls doxic battles. In these battles e.g. scientific facts, military hardware and social networks are mobilised as weapons in a fight for recognition. NATO’s transformation and fight for survival and the rapidly growing number of think tanks in European security in the 1990s is taken as an example of these processes. The book studies a variety of sources such as funding to science programmes in Europe; think tanks and research centres in European security; NATO’s relations with the EU, the WEU and the OSCE; and the mobilization of theory at crucial points in the transformation process. Theory as Practice and Capital will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, security studies and critical theory.