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Mainstream and Critical Social Theory
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Mainstream and Critical Social Theory
Classical, Modern and Contemporary

Eight Volume Set
Edited by:

June 2001 | 3 328 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Unrivalled in scope and depth, and prepared by one of the acknowledged giants of contemporary social theory, this boxed set provides a magisterial review of the central canons, discourses and research programmes in social theory. The reader is provided with a route-map through the complex terrain of social theory from classical to contemporary times. Alexander distils an amazingly rich set of resources into eight exceptional volumes. For the specialist who does not have all of these materials to hand, the set offers an incisive and invaluable research aid. For the non-specialist, the volumes constitute an elegant and reliable entry into the heart of what is important in social theory. For specialist and non-specialist alike, Alexander's choices will be a fascinating insight into his view of the essentials in the Western tradition of social theory.

The collection begins with a specially prepared essay by Alexander which precludes a view of social theory as a `glorious' onward march. Instead, he concentrates on the relativity of social theory, a relativity that derives from the status of sociology as a human science rather than a science of nature. The Introduction provides the reader with a guide through the main structural shifts in social theory. It demonstrates why the classics are significant and elucidates their contemporary relevance; and indicates the limitations of the classical tradition, tracing where these limitations have borne fruit in contemporary research initiatives and achievements. Alexander identifies central canons in sociological research and lays the groundwork for framing each. Urbane, shrewd and compelling, Alexander's mapping of the canons will inspire debate in sociology and offers an exciting new reorientation for reading and understanding social theory.


 
VOLUME ONE: THE SOCIOLOGICAL TRADTIONS: CANONS AND CRITICAL DISCOURSES
 
PART ONE: CANONS: THE GREAT TRADITIONS
Karl Marx
Alienated Labor
Karl Marx
On the Production of Consciousness
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
Bourgeoisa and Proletarians
Karl Marx
Base and Superstructure
Karl Marx
The Later Theory of Capitalism and Class Domination
Karl Marx
The Indeterminacy of Historical Causation
Max Weber
Confucianism and Puritanism
Max Weber
Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions
Max Weber
Class, Status and Party
Max Weber
Formal Organization
Max Weber
The Types of Legitimate Political Authority
Max Weber
Historical Emergence of Citizenship
Emile Durkheim
Structural Differentiation and the Rational Modern Conscience
Emile Durkheim
Rules for the Observation of Social Facts
Emile Durkheim
Pathologies of Modernity
The Social Causes of Suicide

 
 
VOLUME TWO
 
PART ONE: CANONS: THE GREAT TRADITIONS (continued)
Emile Durkheim
Individualism and the Intellectuals
Emile Durkheim
The Religious Theory of Modernity
Emile Durkheim
Definition of Socialism
 
PART TWO: CANONS: THE LITTLE TRADITIONS
Georg Simmel
Confict as Integrative
Georg Simmel
The Triad
Georg Simmel
Culture and Crisis
Georg Simmel
The Metropolis and Mental Life
George Herbert Mead
Interaction and Meaning
Erving Goffman
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Erving Goffman
Introduction to Frame Analysis
Erving Goffman
The Interaction Order
John Dewey
Communication and Moral Action in Modern Societies
Alfred Schutz
Choosing among Projects of Action
Harold Garfinkel
Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities
 
VOLUME THREE
 
PART TWO: CANONS: THE LITTLE TRADTIONS (continued)
James S Coleman
Society as Rational Exchange
George C Homans
Social Behavior as Exchange
Talcott Parsons
On Institutions and Social Evolution
Talcott Parsons
The Superego and the Theory of Social Systems
Talcott Parsons
Integration and Institutionalization in the Social System
Talcott Parsons
The Concept of Society
The Components and Their Interrelations

 
Talcott Parsons
On the Concept of Political Power
Talcott Parsons and Neil J Smelser
Double Interchanges in Economy and Society
 
PART THREE: CRITICAL DISCOURSES
Frederick Engels
The Residual Category of Marxism
Economic Determinism Only in the Last Instance

 
V I Lenin
The Rustic Craftsmanship of the Economists and the Organization of Revolutionaries
Georg Luk[ac]acs
Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat
Antonio Gramsci
The Study of Philosophy
Jean-Paul Sartre
The Problem of Mediations and Auxiliary Disciplines
Louis Althusser
Contradiction and Overdetermination
Notes for an Investigation

 
Shlomo Avineri
Alienation and Property
J[um]urgen Habermas
Beyond Economism to Culture and Legitimation
Edward Shils
Charisma, Order and Status
 
VOLUME FOUR
 
PART THREE: CRITICAL DISCOURSES (continued)
Reinhard Bendix
Inequality and Social Structure
A Comparison of Marx and Weber

 
Guenther Roth
Domination as the Core of Weber's Political Sociology
Wolfgang Schluchter
The Dialectical Development of the Rationalism of World Mastery
Religion and Science

 
Ralph Schroeder
Nietzsche and Weber
Two `Prophets' of the Modern World

 
Lewis A Coser
Continuities in the Study of Social Conflict
Anthony Giddens
Durkheim's Early Works
Robert N Bellah
Durkheim and History
Jeffery C Alexander
Rethinking Durkheim's Intellectual Development
On the Complex Origins of a Cultural Sociology

 
J[um]urgen Habermas
The Rational Structure of the Linguistication of the Sacred
Robert K Merton
Manifest and Latent Functions
David Lockwood
Some Remarks on `The Social System'
Dennis H Wrong
The Oversocialized Conception of Man in Modern Sociology
Jeffrey C Alexander
Formal and Substantive Voluntarism in the Work of Talcott Parsons
A Theoretical and Ideological Reinterpretation

 
Hans Joas
The Debate with Parsons
Rehistoricizing the Convergence Thesis

 
Robert J Holton and Bryan S Turner
Against Nostalgia
Talcott Parsons and a Sociology for the Modern World

 
Klaus M[um]uller
`Modernizing' Eastern Europe
Theoretical Problems and Political Dilemmas

 
 
VOLUME FIVE
 
PART ONE: RESEARCH PROGRAMS
Ralph Miliband
The Capitalist State
Reply to Nicos Poulantzas

 
Nicos Poulantzas
The Capitalist State
A Reply to Miliband and Laclau

 
Paul A Baran and Paul M Sweezy
Late Capitalism beyond Economism
Andr[ac]e Gorz
The Wider Reproduction of Labor Power
The Model of Civilization

 
Harry Braverman
A Final Note on Skill
Louis Althusser
Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation)
Alvin W Gouldner
The Rational Culture of Critical-Class Discourse
Pierre Bourdieu
Classes and Classifications
Paul Willis
Shop Floor Culture, Masculinity and the Wage Form
Robert Michels
Organizational Oligarchies
Seymour Lipset, Trow and Coleman
Why Democracy in the ITU?
Philip Selznick
Foundations of the Theory of Organization
Walter W Powell and Paul J DiMaggio
The New Institutionalism in Organization Theory
C Wright Mills
The Higher Circles
 
VOLUME SIX
 
PART ONE: RESEARCH PROGRAMS (continued)
T H Marshall
Citizenship and Social Class
Raymond Aron
Social Class, Political Class, Ruling Class
Seymour Martin Lipset
Elections
The Expression of the Democratic Class Struggle

 
Margaret R Somers
Citizenship and the Place of the Public Sphere
Law, Community and Political Culture in the Transition to Democracy

 
Robert K Merton
Social Structure and Anomie
Kai T Erikson
On the Sociology of Deviance
Robert N Bellah
Civil Religion in America
Mary Douglas
Secular Defilement
Clifford Geertz
Deep Play
Notes on the Balinese Cockfight

 
Victor W Turner
Liminality and Communitas
Viviana A Zelizer
From Mobs to Memorials
The Sacrulization of Child Life

 
Jeffrey C Alexander
Culture and Political Crisis
`Watergate' and Durkheimian Sociology

 
Robert E Park
The Urban Community as a Spatial Pattern and a Moral Order
Charles Horton Cooley
The Social Self - The Meaning of `I'
Herbert Blumer
Social Movements
Everett C Hughes
Good People and Dirty Work
 
VOLUME SEVEN
 
PART ONE: RESEARCH PROGRAMS (continued)
Howard S Becker
Becoming a Marihuana User
Elijah Anderson
Street Etiquette and Street Wisdom
Alfred Sch[um]utz
Making Music Together
A Study in Social Relationship

 
Harold Garfinkel
Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex Status in an `Intersexed' Person
Harvey Sacks, Emanuel A Schegloff and Gail Jefferson
A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation
Michael Hechter
Rational Choice and Solidarity
Robert K Merton
Science and Democratic Social Structure
Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E Moore
Some Principles of Stratification
D F Aberle et al
The Functional Prerequisites of a Society
Albert K Cohen
The Sociology of the Deviant Act
Anomie Theory and beyond

 
Robert N Bellah
Religious Evolution
Neil J Smelser
Structural Differentiation in Spinning
Philip E Slater
Toward a Dualistic Theory of Identification
Bernard Barber
Values, Norms and Informed Consent
S N Eisenstadt
The Fundamental Characteristics of the Political Systems and the Social Conditions of Their Development
Jeffrey C Alexander
The Mass News Media in Systemic, Historical and Comparative Perspective
William Julius Wilson
The Truly Disadvantaged
 
VOLUME EIGHT
 
PART ONE: RESEARCH PROGRAMS (continued)
Douglas S Massey and Nancy A Denton
Status Conflict as the Basis of Racial Segregation
Orlando Patterson
American Dionysus
Images of Afro-American Men at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century

 
Nancy Chodorow
Family Structure and Feminine Personality
Sherry B Ortner
Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?
Karen Sacks
Engels Revisited
Women, the Organization of Production, and Private Property

 
Pamela M Fishman
Interaction
The Work Women Do

 
Judith Butler
Imitation and Gender Insubordination
Cynthia Fuchs Epstein
Tinkerbells and Pinups
The Construction and Reconstruction of Gender Boundaries at Work

 
Benedict Anderson
Cultural Roots
Randall Collins
On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology
Jeffrey C Alexander
Action and Its Environments
J[um]urgen Habermas
Historical Materialism and the Development of Normative Structures
Michael Walzer
Complex Equality
 
PART TWO: CURRENT CONTROVERSIES
Steven Seidman
Postmodern Social Theory as Narrative with a Moral Intent
Stuart Hall
Encoding, Decoding
Robin Erica Wagner-Pacifici
Introduction to the Moro Morality Play
Jeffrey C Alexander
The Promise of a Cultural Sociology
Technological Discourse and the Sacred and Profane Information Machine