Routledge Library Editions: Social Theory
Citizenship and Capitalism (RLE Social Theory): The Debate over Reformism
1st Edition
By Bryan S. Turner
July 12, 2016
In this study of politics in capitalist society Bryan Turner explores the development of citizenship as a way of demonstrating the effective use of political institutions by the working class and other subordinate groups to promote their interests. Marxist criticisms of reformism are rejected; it ...
Sceptical Sociology (RLE Social Theory)
1st Edition
By John Carroll
July 11, 2016
John Carroll contends that since 1918 sociology has distinguished itself by making society appear as dull as it is at its worst. Using barbaric jargon, legalistic syntax and vacuous statistical tables, and driven by an obsession with the humdrum, it has exhibited some of the worst traits of the ...
Talcott Parsons and the Social Image of Man
1st Edition
By Ken Menzies
June 03, 2016
This account of Talcott Parsons’s work clarifies his basic concepts and sets out their correlation. Dr Menzies believes that the philosophy of science working within the confines of the analytic-synthetic distinction tends to provide a rigid, static and sterile account of theories. He presents a ...
Key Thinkers, Past and Present (RLE Social Theory)
1st Edition
Edited
By Jessica Kuper
May 26, 2016
This volume provides a fascinating perspective on the social sciences through its examination of the leading proponents, their ideas and careers. It includes useful suggestions for further reading. All the great names in the history of the subject are here – Freud, Marx, Weber, Adam Smith and so on...
Conservative Capitalism in Britain and the United States: A Critical Appraisal
1st Edition
By Raymond Plant, Kenneth Hoover
May 20, 2016
The shock waves of conservative advances have reached into every corner of American and British politics. Parties of the right have prospered, while parties of the left have stumbled, retreated, and are now regrouping. The agenda for both right and left is set by the terms of the free-market ...
Introduction to the Social Sciences (RLE Social Theory)
1st Edition
By Maurice Duverger
May 20, 2016
Professor Duverger at last provides the student with an overall view of the methodology of the social sciences. He briefly traces the origin of the notion of a social science, showing how it emerged from social philosophy. Its essential elements and pre-conditions are described; the splintering of ...
R.D. Laing: His Work and its Relevance for Sociology (RLE Social Theory)
1st Edition
By Martin Howarth-Williams
May 20, 2016
This study, by a sociologist, provides the most rigorous and comprehensive review to appear so far of R. D. Laing's work and theoretical development. Martin Howarth-Williams considers that Laing's insights into such controversial issues as the divided self and the politics of the family are of an ...
Science and the Sociology of Knowledge
1st Edition
By Michael Mulkay
May 20, 2016
How far is scientific knowledge a product of social life? In addressing this question, the major contributors to the sociology of knowledge have agreed that the conclusions of science are dependent on social action only in a very special and limited sense. In Science and the Sociology of Knowledge ...
Social Philosophy
1st Edition
By Hans Fink
May 20, 2016
The programmes of political parties and movements are attempts to formulate policies or guidelines in relation to social change. Social philosophy concerns the fundamental issues on which those programmes divide. This introductory work gives an account of several highly influential systems of ...
Talcott Parsons and the Conceptual Dilemma (RLE Social Theory)
1st Edition
By Hans Adriaansens
May 20, 2016
This systematic analysis of the nature and development of Talcott Parson’s theory of action offers first an introduction to the conceptual paradigm upon which this theory is based – an introduction, that is, which will make Parson’s writing more easily accessible. Second, the book gives an ...
The Hermeneutic Imagination: Outline of a Positive Critique of Scientism and Sociology
1st Edition
By Josef Bleicher
May 20, 2016
In his previous book, Contemporary Hermeneutics, Josef Bleicher offered an introduction to the subject, locating it mainly within the philosophy of social science, and looking at the profound impact it is having on a wide range of intellectual pursuits. This book follows on from this and expounds ...
The Person in the Sight of Sociology
1st Edition
By Colin Fletcher
May 20, 2016
Sociology is about society, but what about people? The person in the sight of sociology is all too often a matchstick being. In this original and stimulating book the person is characterized by what is inherent in a social being, and the result is a rich narrative, the story of the person told ...