Contemporary Sociological Theory

The new edition of the definitive undergraduate guide to contemporary sociological theory, with updated reading selections throughout

The fourth edition of Contemporary Sociological Theory offers a thorough introduction to current perspectives and approaches in sociology and social science. Covering a broad range of essential topics, this comprehensive volume provides students with the foundation necessary for understanding the theoretical underpinnings of present-day debates in the diverse field. In-depth yet accessible readings address micro-sociological analysis, symbolic interactionism, network theory, phenomenology, critical theory, structuralism, feminist theory, and more.

This classic text is fully revised to incorporate the most representative and up-to-date material, including new readings addressing debates on gender, power, and inequality. New editorial introductions clarify and contextualize the selected readings, while up-to-date examples highlight connections to today’s theoretical discussions. This authoritative survey of contemporary sociological theory:

• Presents substantial primary source texts with detailed introductions, rather than brief excerpts and basic overviews
• Examines the sociological theories of Foucault, Giddens, Bourdieu, and Habermas
• Discusses debates over modernity and postmodernity, crisis and change, and race and difference
• Provides historical and intellectual perspective to each selected reading in the book
• Includes extensive references to further readings and resources

Contemporary Sociological Theory, Fourth Edition provides the depth of coverage students require for undergraduate courses in social and sociological theory as well as courses in wider social science programs such as human geography, anthropology, criminology, and urban studies. In combination with its complement Classical Sociological Theory, Fourth Edition, Contemporary Sociological Theory remains the most complete overview of sociological theory available.

Craig Calhoun is University Professor of Social Sciences at Arizona State University, USA. He was previously Director of the London School of Economics and President of the Social Science Research Council. His most recent book is Degenerations of Democracy (with Dilip Gaonkar and Charles Taylor).

Joseph Gerteis is Professor of Sociology and co-Principal Investigator of the American Mosaic Project at the University of Minnesota, USA. He is author of Class and the Color Line, and his research focuses on race, ethnicity, social boundaries and identities, and political culture.

James Moody is Professor of Sociology at Duke University, USA, and Director of the Duke Network Analysis Center. He has published widely in the fields of social networks, methods, and social theory. His work focuses on the network foundations of social cohesion and diffusion, with an emphasis on tools and methods for understanding dynamic social networks.

Steven Pfaff is Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington, USA. He is the author of several books, including Exit-Voice Dynamics and the Collapse of East Germany and The Genesis of Rebellion. His research focuses on religion, politics and social change.

Indermohan Virk is Executive Director of the Patten Foundation and the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions at Indiana University Bloomington, USA. She works in the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs.

Notes on the Editors ix

Acknowledgements x

General Introduction 1

Part I Symbolic Action 27

Introduction to Part I 29

1 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life) 36
Erving Goffman

2 Symbolic Interactionism (from Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method) 51
Herbert Blumer

3 Interaction Ritual Chains (from Interaction Ritual Chains) 62
Randall Collins

Part II Structure and Agency 77

Introduction to Part II 79

4 A Theory of Group Solidarity (from Principles of Group Solidarity) 88
Michael Hechter

5 Metatheory: Explanation in Social Science (from Foundations of Social Theory) 100
James S. Coleman

6 Catnets (from Notes on the Constituents of Social Structure) 112
Harrison White

7 Some New Rules of Sociological Method (from New Rules For Sociological Method) 123
Anthony Giddens

Part III Institutions 129

Introduction to Part III 131

8 Economic Embeddedness 136
Mark Granovetter

9 The Iron Cage Revisited 145
Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell

Part IV Power and Inequality 161

Introduction to Part IV 163

10 The Power Elite (from The Power Elite) 172
C. Wright Mills

11 Durable Inequality (from Durable Inequality) 179
Charles Tilly

12 Power: A Radical View (from Power: A Radical View) 186
Steven Lukes

13 Societies as Organized Power Networks (from The Sources of Social Power, Vol I. A History of Power from the Beginning to A.D. 1760) 196
Michael Mann

Part V The Sociological Theory of Michel Foucault 213

Introduction to Part V 215

14 The History of Sexuality (from The History of Sexuality, Vol I: An Introduction) 220
Michel Foucault

15 Discipline and Punish (from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison) 229
Michel Foucault

Part VI The Sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu 237

Introduction to Part VI 239

16 Social Space and Symbolic Space (from “Social Space and Symbolic Space: Introduction to a Japanese Reading of Distinction”) 248
Pierre Bourdieu

17 Structures, Habitus, Practices (from The Logic of Practice) 257
Pierre Bourdieu

18 The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed 270
Pierre Bourdieu

19 Rethinking the State: Genesis and Structure of the Bureaucratic Field (from Rethinking the State: Genesis and Structure of the Bureaucratic Field) 286
Pierre Bourdieu

Part VII Race, Gender, and Intersectionality 297

Introduction to Part VII 299

20 The Theory of Racial Formation (from Racial Formation in the United States) 308
Michael Omi and Howard Winant

21 Intellectual Schools and the Atlanta School (from The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology) 318
Aldon D. Morris

22 The Paradoxes of Integration (from The Ordeal of Integration: Progress and Resentment in Americas “Racial” Crisis) 329
Orlando Patterson

23 The Conceptual Practices of Power (from The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge) 337
Dorothy E. Smith

24 Black Feminist Epistemology (from Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment) 345
Patricia Hill Collins

25 Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex 354
Kimberle Crenshaw

26 Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological Research 363
Hae Yeon Choo and Myra Marx Ferree

27 The Politics of Erased Migrations 373
Rocio R. Garcia

Part VIII The Sociological Theory of Jürgen Habermas 385

Introduction to Part VIII 387

28 Modernity: An Unfinished Project (from Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity) 395
Jürgen Habermas

29 The Rationalization of the Lifeworld (from The Theory of Communicative Action Volume 2: Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason) 401
Jürgen Habermas

30 Civil Society and the Political Public Sphere (from Between Facts and Norms: Contribution to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy) 417
Jürgen Habermas

Part IX Modernity 431

Introduction to Part IX 433

31 The Social Constraint towards Self-Constraint (from The Civilizing Process: The History of Manners and State Formation and Civilization) 439
Norbert Elias

32 We Have Never Been Modern (from We Have Never Been Modern) 449
Bruno Latour

33 The Civil Sphere (from The Civil Sphere) 462
Jeffrey C. Alexander

34 Addressing Recognition Gaps: Destigmatization and the Reduction of Inequality (from American Sociological Review) 472
Michèle Lamont

Part X Crisis and Change 487

Introduction to Part X 489

35 The Modern World-System in Crisis (from World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction) 498
Immanuel Wallerstein

36 Conceptualizing Simultaneity 510
Peggy Levitt and Nina Glick Schiller

37 Nationalism (from Nationalism) 519
Craig Calhoun

38 The End May Be Nigh, But For Whom? (from Does Capitalism Have a Future?) 529
Michael Mann

Index 544

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