Summary
Contents
Subject index
‘This book is accessible, as a beginner's guide should be, but without an over-simplification of the arguments. It should prove an immensely durable text for generations of students to come‘ — John Hughes, Lancaster University At last, a book that makes social theory for undergraduates a pleasure to teach and study. The book offers a comprehensive overview of social theory from classical sociology to the present day. Students are guided through the work of Durkheim, Marx and Weber, functionalism, action perspectives, feminism, postmodernism and contemporary thinkers like Anthony Giddens, Michel Foucault, Jüurgen Habermas, Frederic Jameson, Judith Butler, Gilles Deluze, Manuel Castells, Luce Irigary, Naomi Woolf and Camille Paglia. The book presents clear accounts of these contributions and employs an extensive range of activities that encourage the reader to evaluate the work of given theorists and approaches. The book is: Comprehensive; Student-friendly; Accurate; Unpatronising. It offers lecturers and students an ideal study resource for undergraduate modules in social theory.
Functionalist Perspectives: Theorising Systems and Structures
Functionalist Perspectives: Theorising Systems and Structures
- Emile Durkheim (1858–1917) 17
- Talcott Parsons: The Functionalist Approach 30
- Neil Smelser: Social Paralysis and Social Change 34
- Niklas Luhmann: ‘Autopoietic Systems Theory’ 36
- Summary 44
Chapter Contents
By the End of This Chapter You Should Have
- a critical awareness of the contribution of Emile Durkheim to modern social theory;
- an awareness of the way in which Durkheim's ...
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