Sociological Theory in the Contemporary Era

Chapter 1: Introduction What Is Sociological Theory? Why Read Original Works? Who Are Sociology's Core Theorists? Who are Sociology's Core Contemporary Theorists? How Can We Navigate Sociological Theory? Discussion Questions Chapter 2: Structural Functionalism Talcott C. Parsons (1902-1979): A Biographical Sketch Parson's Intellecutal Influences and Core Ideas Parson's Theoretical Orientation Readings Categories of the Orientation and Organization of Action (1951) Sex Roles in the American Kinship System (1943) Robert K. Merton (1910-2003): A Biographical Sketch Merton's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Merton's Theoretical Orientation Readings Manifest and Latent Functions (1949) Social Structure and Anomie (1967) Discussion Questions Chapter 3: Critical Theory Mark Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse: Biographical Sketches Horkheimer's, Adorno's, and Marcuse's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Horkheimer's, Adorno'a, and Marcuse's Theoretical Orientations Readings Eclipse of Reason (1947) The Culture Industry Reconsidered (1975) One-Dimensional Man (1964) Jurgen Habermas (1929- ): A Biographical Sketch Habermas's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Habermas's Theoretical Orientation Readings Civil Society, Public Opinion, and Communicative Power (1996) The Tasks of a Critical Theory of Society (1987) Patricia Hill Collins (1948- ): A Biographical Sketch Collins's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Collins's Theoretical Orientation Reading Black Feminist Thought (1990) Discussion Questions Chaper 4: Exchange and Rational Choice Theories George C. Homans (1910-1989): A Biographical Sketch Homan's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Homan's Theoretical Orientation Reading Social Behavior as Exchange (1958) Peter M. Blau (1918-2002): A Biographical Sketch Blau's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Blau's Theoretical Orientation Reading Exchange and Power in Social Life (1964) James S. Coleman (1926-1995): A Biographical Sketch Coleman's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Coleman's Theoretical Orientation Reading Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital (1988) Discussion Questions Chapter 5: Symbolic Interactionism and Dramaturgy Herbert Blumer (1900-1987): A Biographical Sketch Blumer's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Blumer's Theoretical Orientation Reading The Methodological Position of Symbolic Interactionism (1969) Erving Goffman (1922-1982): A Biographical Sketch Goffman's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Goffman's Theoretical Orientation Readings The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life (1959) Asylums (1961) Arlie Russell Hochschild (1940- ): A Biographical Sketch Hochschild's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Hochschild's Theoretical Orientation Readings Working on Feeling (2003) The Managed Heart (1983) Discussion Questions Chapter 6: Phenomenology and Ethnomethodology Alfred Schutz (1899-1959): A Biographical Sketch Schutz's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Schutz's Theoreitcal Orientation Reading The Phenomenology of the Social World (1967) Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann: Biographical Sketches Berger and Luckmann's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Berger and Luckmann's Theoretial Orientation Reading The Social Construction of Reality (1966) Harold Garfinkle (1917- ): A Biographical Sketch Garfinkle's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Garfinkle's Theoretical Orientation Reading Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967) Dorothy E. Smith (1926- ): A Biographical Sketch Smith's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Smith's Theoretical Orientation Readings Institutional Ethnography (2005) The Everyday World as Problematic (1987) Discussion Questions Chapter 7: Poststructuralism Defining Poststructuralism Michel Foucault (1926-1984): A Biographical Sketch Foucault's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Foucault's Theoretical Orientation Reading Social Space and the Genesis of Groups (1982) Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002): A Biographical Sketch Bourdieu's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Bourdieu's Theoretical Orientation Readings Discipline and Punish (1975) Outline of a Sociological Theory of Art Perception (1968) Edward Said (1935-2003): A Biographical Sketch Said's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Said's Theoretical Orientation Reading Orientalism (1978) Discussion Questions Chapter 8: Postmodernism Defining Postmodernism Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007): A Biographical Sketch Baudrillard's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Baudrillard's Theoretical Orientation Reading Simulacra and Simulations (1981) Jean-Francois Lyotard (1924-1998): A Biographical Sketch Lyotard's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Lyotard's Theoretical Orientation Reading The Postmodern Condition (1979) Judith Butler (1956- ): A Biographical Sketch Butler's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Butler's Theoretical Orientation Reading Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire (1990) Discussion Questions Chapter 9: The Global Society Defining Globalization Immanuel Wallerstein (1930- ): A Biographical Sketch Wallerstein's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Wallerstein's Theoretical Orientation Reading The Modern World-System as a Capitalist World-Economy: Production, Surplus Value, and Polarization (2004) Leslie Sklair (1940- ): A Biographical Sketch Sklair's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Sklair's Theoretical Orientation Reading Globalization: Capitalism and Its Alternatives (2002) George Ritzer (1940- ): A Biographical Sketch Ritzer's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Ritzer's Theoretical Orientation Reading Rethinking Globalization: Glocalization/Grobalization and Something/Nothing (2003) Anthony Giddens (1938- ): A Biographical Sketch Gidden's Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas Gidden's Theoretical Orientation Reading The Consequences of Modernity (1990) Discussion Questions