Contemporary social theory
Subtitle: an introduction
By: Anthony Elliott.
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York
Language: eng
Format: Trade Paperback
Number of pages: 375
ISBN-13: 9780415386326; 9780415386333
Subjects: Sociology -- Philosophy; Social sciences -- Philosophy; Sociology -- Philosophy -- History -- 20th century; Social sciences -- Philosophy -- History -- 20th century
Table of contents: title: The Textures of Society. What is Society? -- Society and Social Theory -- Social Theory as Practical Life : Charles Lemert -- Key Themes in Contemporary Social Theory -- Further Questions -- Further Reading -- Internet Links -- The Frankfurt School. Adorno and Horkheimer : Dialectic of Enlightenment -- Freudian Revolution : The Uses of Psychoanalysis -- Fromm : Fear of Freedom -- Adorno : The Authoritarian Personality, Anti-Semitism and the Psychodynamics of Modernity -- Written In The Stars : Adorno on Astrology -- Marcuse : Eros, or One-Dimensional Futures? -- Freud’s Cultural Message : Sufferings, Submissions and Discontents -- Utopia and Social Transformation : Marcuse on Libidinal Rationality -- Appraisal of Marcuse -- Summary Points -- Further Questions -- Further Reading -- Internet Links -- Structuralism. Saussure and Structural Linguistics -- Critical Comments on Saussure -- The Raw and The Cooked : Levi-Strauss and Structural Anthropology -- Roland Barthes : Structuralist Semiology and Popular Culture -- Foucault : Knowledge, Social Order and Power -- Society and Disciplined Bodies -- The Limits of Structuralism : Foucault’s History of Sexuality -- Governmentality -- Criticisms of Foucault -- Summary Points -- Further Questions -- Further Reading -- Internet Links -- Post-Structuralism. Lacan : The Mirror Stage and Imaginary -- Lacan’s Reformulation of Structuralism : Language, Symbolic Order and the Unconscious -- Althusser : Social Order as Interpellation -- Cinema Studies : The Screen as Mirror -- Zizek : Beyond Interpellation -- Appraisal of Lacan -- Derrida : Difference and Deconstruction -- Rereading Psychoanalysis : Derrida’s Critique of Lacan -- Appraisal of Derrida -- Post-structuralism and Postcolonial Theory : Bhabha’s The Location of Culture -- Summary Points -- Further Questions -- Further Reading -- Internet Links -- Theories of Structuration. Anthony Giddens : Structuration and the Practical Routines of Social Life -- Giddens on Modernity and the Self -- Giddens, Politics and The Third Way -- Criticism of Giddens -- Pierre Bourdieu : Habitus and Practical Social Life -- Questions of Taste : Bourdieu’s Distinction -- Criticism of Bourdieu -- Summary Points -- Further Questions -- Further Reading -- Internet Links -- Contemporary Critical Theory. Habermas : The Democratization of Society -- The Early Habermas : Development and Decline of the Public Sphere -- Habermas on Capitalism, Communication and Colonization -- Emotional Imperialism : Feminist Criticism of Habermas -- Habermas on Globalization and Post-National Societies -- Criticisms of Habermas -- Honneth : The Struggle for Recognition -- Summary Points -- Further Questions -- Further Reading -- Internet Links -- Feminism and Post-Feminist Theory. Theorizing Patriarchy : 1970s Feminisms -- Juliet Mitchell on Feminity and Sexual Difference -- Dinnerstein : societal nurturing arrangements -- Chodorow : The Reproduction of Mothering -- Benjamin : The Analysis of Love -- Julia Kristeva : Semiotic Subversions -- Kristeva on motherhood and maternal ethics -- Appraisal of Kristeva -- Irigary : The Feminine Imaginary -- Judith Butler : Scripts of Gender Performance -- Appraisal of Butler -- Queer Theory -- Summary -- Postmodernity. Deleuze and Guatarri : Postmodernity as Schizoid Desire -- The Postmodern Condition : Lyotard  -- Baudrillard : Postmodernity as Simulated Media Culture -- Baudrillard’s non-event : The Gulf War Did not Take Place -- Jameson: Postmodernity as Global Capitalist Transformations -- Bauman : Postmodernity as Modernity Minus Illusions -- Postmodern Ethics : The Global Moral Gap -- Criticisms of Postmodernism -- Summary Points -- Further Questions -- Further Reading -- Internet Links -- Networks, Risks, Liquids. Manuel Castells : The Network Society -- Criticism of Castells -- Global Networks and Fluids : Urry on Mobilities -- Ulrich Beck : Organized Lives in a World of Risk -- Beck on Reflexive Modernization -- Individualization -- Criticisms of Beck -- Living with Liquidization : Bauman -- Bauman on Liquid Lives, Loves and Fears -- Criticism of Bauman -- Summary Points -- Further Questions -- Further Reading -- Internet Links -- Globalization. The Globalization Debate -- Global Cosmopolitanism -- Globalization Since 9/11 -- Criticisms of the Globalization Debate -- Globalization, Work and The New Economy -- Uncertain Lives in the Global Electronic Economy -- Globalization, Communication and Culture -- Globalization and the New Individualism -- Summary Points -- Further Questions -- Further Reading -- Internet Links -- Afterword: Social Theory Today and Towards 2025 : From Giorgio Agamben to Manuel De Landa.