Concise Reader in Sociological Theory

Essential writings from classical and contemporary sociological theorists engagingly introduced and brought to life for students

This Concise Reader in Sociological Theory contains excerpts from the writings of a wide range of key theorists who represent the dynamic breadth of classical and contemporary, macro- and micro-sociological theory. The selected writings elaborate on the core concepts and arguments of sociological theory, and, along with the commentary, explore topics that resonate today such as: crisis and change, institutions and networks, power and inequality, race, gender, difference, and much more.

The text contains editorial introductions to each section that clearly explain the intellectual context of the theorists and their arguments and reinforce their relevance to sociological analysis and society today. The excerpts include writings from the classicists Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, W.E.B. Du Bois to the contemporary Patricia Hill Collins, Dorothy Smith, Raewyn Connell. This indispensable book:

• Offers a concise review of the diverse field of sociological theory

• Includes contributions from a wide range of noted classical and contemporary theorists

• Incorporates engaging empirical examples from contemporary society

• Demonstrates the relevance and significance of the ideas presented in the theorists' writings

Designed for undergraduate and graduate students in sociology and in social and political theory, Concise Reader in Sociological Theory is an engaging and accessible guide to the most relevant sociological theorists.

Autorentext

MICHELE DILLON is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, USA, and was educated at University College Dublin, Ireland, and the University of California, Berkeley, USA. She has many years of experience teaching sociological theory to undergraduate and graduate students, and, among a wide range of publications, she is the author of Introduction to Sociological Theory, Third Edition (Wiley, 2020).

Zusammenfassung

Essential writings from classical and contemporary sociological theorists engagingly introduced and brought to life for students

This Concise Reader in Sociological Theory contains excerpts from the writings of a wide range of key theorists who represent the dynamic breadth of classical and contemporary, macro- and micro-sociological theory. The selected writings elaborate on the core concepts and arguments of sociological theory, and, along with the commentary, explore topics that resonate today such as: crisis and change, institutions and networks, power and inequality, race, gender, difference, and much more.

The text contains editorial introductions to each section that clearly explain the intellectual context of the theorists and their arguments and reinforce their relevance to sociological analysis and society today. The excerpts include writings from the classicists Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, W.E.B. Du Bois to the contemporary Patricia Hill Collins, Dorothy Smith, Raewyn Connell. This indispensable book:

• Offers a concise review of the diverse field of sociological theory
• Includes contributions from a wide range of noted classical and contemporary theorists
• Incorporates engaging empirical examples from contemporary society
• Demonstrates the relevance and significance of the ideas presented in the theorists' writings
  Designed for undergraduate and graduate students in sociology and in social and political theory, Concise Reader in Sociological Theory is an engaging and accessible guide to the most relevant sociological theorists.

Inhalt

Introduction 1

Part I Classical Theorists 7

1 Karl Marx 9

1A Karl Marx from Wage Labour and Capital 12

II 13

1B Karl Marx and Frederick Engels from Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 17

Profit of Capital 19

1C Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels from The German Ideology 27

2 Emile Durkheim 31

2A Emile Durkheim from The Rules of Sociological Method 34

What is a Social Fact? 34

II 37

2B Emile Durkheim from Suicide: A Study in Sociology 41

3 Max Weber 47

3A Max Weber from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 50

Religious Affiliation and Social Stratification 50

3B Max Weber from Economy and Society 65

The Definition of Sociology and of Social Action 65

Types of Social Action 71

3C Max Weber from Essays in Sociology 75

Bureaucracy 75

Structures of Power 77

Class, Status, Party 78

The Sociology of Charismatic Authority 80

Science as a Vocation 83

Part II Structural Functionalism, Conflict, and Exchange Theories 89

4 Structural Functionalism 91

4A Robert K. Merton from On Social Structure and Science 94

The Ethos of Science 94

Universalism 94

Communism 95

Disinterestedness 95

Organized Skepticism 97

5 Conflict and Dependency Theories 99

5A Ralf Dahrendorf from Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society 101

5B Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto from Dependency and Development in Latin America 107

Theory of Dependency and Capitalistic Development 107

6 Social Exchange 111

6A Peter M. Blau from Exchange and Power in Social Life 113

6B James S. Coleman from Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital 116

Social Capital 116

Human Capital and Social Capital 118

Forms of Social Capital 118

6C Paula England from Sometimes the Social Becomes Personal: Gender, Class, and Sexualities 120

Defining Terms 121

Explaining the Gender Differences 123

Part III Symbolic Interaction, Phenomenology, and Ethnomethodology 129

7 Symbolic Interaction 131

7A George H. Mead from Mind, Self & Society 134

From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist 134

7B Erving Goffman from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life 136

Introduction 136

8 Phenomenology 141

8A Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann from The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge 143

The Reality of Everyday Life 143

Origins of Institutionalization 147

9 Ethnomethodology 159

9A Harold Garfinkel from Studies in Ethnomethodology 161

Practical Sociological Reasoning: Doing Accounts in Common Sense Situations of Choice 161

9B Sarah Fenstermaker and Candace West from Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Inequality, Power, and Institutional Change 166

Difference as an Ongoing Interactional Accomplishment 166

Common Misapprehensions 168

The Dynamics of Doing Difference 169

Part IV Major Postwar European Influences On Sociological Theory 173

10 Critical Theory: The Frankfurt School 175

10A Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno from Dialectic of Enlightenment 179

10B Jurgen Habermas from The Theory of Communicative Action: Reason and the Rationalization of Society 184 **11 Pierre Bourdieu 189</b&...