Sociological Theory gives readers a comprehensive overview of the major theorists and schools of sociological thought, from sociologys 19th century origins through to the early 21st century. Written by an author team that includes one of the leading contemporary thinkers, the text integrates key theories with biographical sketches of theorists, placing them in historical and intellectual context.
PART I INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY
Chapter 1 A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory: The Early Years
Chapter 2 Karl Marx
Chapter 3 Emile Durkheim
Chapter 4 Max Weber
Chapter 5 Georg Simmel
PART II MODERN SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: THE MAJOR SCHOOLS
Chapter 6 A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory: The Later Years
Chapter 7 Structural Functionalism, Systems Theory, and Conflict Theory
Chapter 8 Varieties of Neo-Marxian Theory
Chapter 9 Symbolic Interactionism
Chapter 10 Ethnomethodology
Chapter 11 Exchange, Network, and Rational Choice Theories
Chapter 12 Contemporary Feminist Theory (by Patricia Madoo Lengermann and
Gillian Niebrugge)
Chapter 13 Micro-Macro and Agency-Structure Integration
PART III FROM MODERN TO POSTMODERN SOCIAL THEORY (AND BEYOND)
Chapter 14 Contemporary Theories of Modernity
Chapter 15 Structuralism, Poststructuralism, and Postmodern Social Theory
Chapter 16 Theories of Race and Colonialism
Chapter 17 Globalization Theory
Chapter 18 Science, Technology, and Nature
George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has also been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence Award. He was awarded the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Association, an honorary doctorate from LaTrobe University in Australia, and the Robin Williams Lectureship from the Eastern Sociological Society. His best-known work, The McDonaldization of Society (8th ed.), has been read by hundreds of thousands of students over two decades and translated into over a dozen languages. Ritzer is also the editor of McDonaldization: The Reader; and author of other works of critical sociology related to the McDonaldization thesis, including Enchanting a Disenchanted World, The Globalization of Nothing, Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, as well as a series best-selling social theory textbooks and Globalization: A Basic Text. He is the Editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2 vols.), the Encyclopedia of Sociology (11 vols.; 2nd edition forthcoming), the Encyclopedia of Globalization (5 vols.), and is Founding Editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture. In 2016 he will publish the second edition of Essentials of Sociology with SAGE.
Jeffrey Stepnisky is an Associate Professor of Sociology at MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada, where he teaches classical and contemporary social theory. He has published in the area of social theory, especially as it relates to questions of subjectivity, in journals such as The Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior and Social Theory & Health. Along with this book he is co-author of Sociological Theory, Classical Sociological Theory, and Modern Sociological Theory, and has co-edited the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists, all with George Ritzer.
