Introduction to Sociological Theory (eBook)

Theorists, Concepts, and their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century

Michele Dillon (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019 | 3. Auflage
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
9781119410898 (ISBN)

Infos

The revised third edition of the text that combines classical and contemporary theories of sociological theory

Thoroughly revised and updated, the third edition of an Introduction to Sociological Theory offers an in-depth introduction to classical and contemporary theories, and demonstrates their relevance to offer a clear understanding of a broad range of contemporary issues and topics. As with the previous editions, the text continues to combine carefully selected primary quotations from a broad range of theorists with extensive discussion and illustrative examples from a diverse range of countries, helpful timelines of important and thematically relevant events, biographical notes, contemporary topic boxes, analytical photos, and chapter glossaries. 

The text addresses topics such as the persistence of economic and social inequality, Brexit, post-truth society, same-sex marriage, digital surveillance and the on-demand gig economy. Written in an engaging style, Introduction to Sociological Theory offers a comprehensive introduction to the pluralistic breadth and wide-ranging applicability of sociological theory. This updated edition of the authoritative text:

• Contains both classical and contemporary theories in a single text
• Builds on excerpts from original theoretical writings with detailed discussion of the concepts and ideas under review
• Includes new examples of current empirical topics such as Brexit, Donald Trump's presidency, China's growing economic power, global warming, intersectionality, social media, and much more
• Offers additional resources including a website that contains multiple choice and essay questions, a thoroughly refreshed set of PowerPoint slides for each chapter with multimedia links to content illustrative of sociological processes, a list of complementary primary readings, a quotation bank, and other background materials

Written for undergraduate courses in contemporary and classical sociological theory, the third edition of an Introduction to Sociological Theory continues to provide a comprehensive, in-depth, and empirically engaging, introduction to sociological theory.

MICHELE DILLON, PhD, is Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire, USA and has many years of experience teaching sociological theory to undergraduate and graduate students. She has authored five books on religion and social change, many articles and book chapters and is the editor of a handbook.

Textauszug

INTRODUCTION
SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY: A VIBRANT, LIVING TRADITION

KEY CONCEPTS

sociological theory

concepts

conceptual frameworks

pluralistic

macro

social structures

micro

culture

agency

classical theory

canon

contemporary theory

Enlightenment

democracy

reason

rationality

inalienable rights

utilitarianism

scientific reasoning

empiricism

positivist

objectivity

interpretive understanding

emancipatory knowledge

double‐consciousness

CHAPTER MENU

• Analyzing Everyday Social Life
  • Immersion in Theory
  • Classical and Contemporary Theory
• Societal Transformation and the Origins of Sociology
  • The Enlightenment: The Elevation of Reason, Democracy, and Science
  • The Individual and Society
  • Scientific Reasoning
• The Establishment of Sociology as Science: Auguste Comte and Harriet Martineau
  • Evolutionary Progress and Auguste Comte’s Vision of Sociology
  • Harriet Martineau: Sociology as the Science of Morals and Manners
  • Interpretive Understanding
• Social Inequality and Contextual Standpoints: Du Bois, De Tocqueville, and Martineau
  • William E.B. Du Bois: Slavery and Racial Inequality
  • Racial And Gender Equality
  • Alexis de Tocqueville: Culture and Social Institutions
  • Harriet Martineau: Cultural Values and Social Contradictions
• Summary
• Points to Remember
• Glossary
• Questions for Review
• Note
• References

Timeline I.1 Major pre‐Enlightenment influences, and events from the Enlightenment to the establishment of sociology

500 BC–AD 999 The Classical World 1000–1490 The Feudal Age 1490–1664 The Age of Discovery

1599	Francis Bacon, Essays

1620	English Pilgrims arrive at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts

1633	Galileo summoned by the Inquisition to defend his theory that the earth moves around the sun

1636	Harvard College founded

1637	René Descartes, “I think, therefore, I am”

1665–1774 The Enlightenment

1670	Blaise Pascal, “Man is only a reed, the weakest thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed”

1687	Isaac Newton explains laws of motion and theories of gravitation

1689	John Locke, On Civil Government

1702	Cambridge University establishes faculty chairs in the sciences

1733	Voltaire praises British liberalism

1752	Benjamin Franklin invents a lightning conductor; demonstrates the identity of lightning and electricity

1762	Jean‐Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

1771	The right to report parliamentary debates established in Britain

1775–1814 The Age of Revolution

1775	American War of Independence; battles of Lexington and Concord (Massachusetts)

1776	British troops evacuate Boston; Declaration of Independence

1776	Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

1788	Bread riots in France

1789	Fall of the Bastille; beginning of the French Revolution; new French Constituent Assembly abolishes feudal rights and privileges

1791	Bill of Rights in America; first 10 amendments to the US Constitution

1792	Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman

1796	Freedom of the press established in France

1805	First factory to be lit by gaslight (in Manchester, England)

1807	Air pump developed for use in mines

1813	Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

1823	Jeremy Bentham, utilitarianism

1831	John Stuart Mill, The Spirit of the Age

1835–1840

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

1837	Harriet Martineau, Society in America

1839	Comte gives sociology its name

1855	Harriet Martineau translates Comte’s Positive Philosophy

1859	Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (modern evolutionary theory)

1861–1865

American Civil War, the South (Confederates) versus the North (Union)

1865	US president Abraham Lincoln assassinated

1865	Thirteenth amendment to the US Constitution, abolishing slavery

Welcome to sociological theory. Theory, by definition, is abstract. This book illustrates the richness of sociological theory by emphasizing how its breadth of concepts or analytical ideas have practical application and explanatory relevance to daily life. It will introduce you to the major theorists whose writings and conceptual frameworks inform sociological thinking. It will equip you with the theoretical vocabulary necessary to appreciate the range of perspectives found in sociological theory. It will give you confidence to apply these ideas to the many sociological topics you study (e.g., inequality, crime, medical sociology, race, political sociology, family, gender, sexuality, culture, religion, community, globalization, etc.) and help you to think analytically about the many occurrences in daily life far beyond the classroom.

Topic I.1 Hotel rooms get plusher, adding to maids’ injuries

“Some call it the ‘amenities arms race,’ some ‘the battle of the beds.’ It is a competition in which the nation’s premier hotels are trying to have their accommodations resemble royal bedrooms. Superthick mattresses, plush duvets and decorative bed skirts have been added, and five pillows rather than the pedestrian three now rest on a king‐size bed. Hilton markets these rooms as Suite Dreams, while Westin boasts of its heavenly beds. The beds may mean sweet dreams to hotel guests, but they mean pain to many of the nation’s 350,000 hotel housekeepers. Several new studies [by unions and health scientists] have found that thousands of housekeepers are suffering arm, shoulder, and lower‐back injuries … it is so strenuous a job that [housekeepers have] a higher risk of back disorders than autoworkers who assemble car doors … The problem, housekeepers say, is not just a heavier mattress, but having to rush because they are assigned the same number of rooms as before while being required to deal with far more per room: more pillows, more sheets, more amenities like bathrobes to hang up and coffee pots to wash. Ms. Reyes [a hotel housekeeper] complained that some days she must make 25 double beds, a task that entails taking off, and putting on, 100 pillowcases … Housekeepers who earn $17,300 a year on average, invariably stoop over to lift mattresses, some of which are only 14 inches off the floor. They frequently twist their backs as they tuck in the sheets, often three of them rather than the two of yesteryear. Since it can take 10 to 12 minutes a bed, a housekeeper who makes 25 beds a day frequently spends four to five hours on the task, lifting mattresses 150 to 200 times … [A Hilton spokesman] said the company had increased training to try to minimize harm to housekeepers … [and to ease] workloads … [and said that the unions are] pushing the injury issue as a smoke screen, largely to pressure hotel companies to agree to procedures making it easier to unionize workers.”

Steven Greenhouse, “Hotel Rooms Get Plusher, Adding to Maids’ Injuries.” New York Times (April 21, 2006). © 2006 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States.

ANALYZING EVERYDAY SOCIAL LIFE

This short excerpt (Topic I.1) on housekeepers and hotel mattresses provides a single snapshot of contemporary society, but its elements can be used to highlight the different ways that sociological theorists approach the study of society. Karl Marx (1818–1883), a towering figure in the analysis of modern capitalism (see chapter...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.12.2019
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geografie / Kartografie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Allgemeine Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Alfred Schutz • Anthony Giddens • Anthropogeographie • Arlie Hochschild • Charlotte Perkins Gilman • Classic Sociological Theory • Conflict theory • Contemporary Sociological Theory • Cornell West • Cosmopolitanism • Critical theory • C. Wright Mills • Dependency Theory • Dorothy Smith • Edward Said • Emile Durkheim theory • Erving Goffman • Ethnomethodology • exchange theories • Feminist Theories • Frantz Fanon • Geographie • Geography • George Homans • Gesellschaftstheorie • GH Mead • global consumer culture theory</p> • guide to sociological theory • Harold Garfinkel • Harriet Martineau theory • Herbert Marcuse • Human geography • Immanuel Wallerstein • Intersectionality • James Coleman • Jurgen Habermas • Karen Cook • karl marx theory • Leslie Sklair • <p>social theory • macro-societal processes • Manuel Castells • Max Horkheimer • Max Weber theory • Michel Foucault • Modern Sociological Theory • Orlando Patterson • Paul Gilroy • Peter Berger • Peter Blau • Phenomenology • Pierre Bourdieu • Political Philosophy & Theory • Political Science • Politikwissenschaft • Politische Philosophie u. Politiktheorie • postcolonial theory • Raewyn Connell, Stuart Hall • Ralf Dahrendorf • Rational Choice Theory • Richard Emerson • Risk society theory • Robert Merton • Saskia Sassen • Social Theory • society in the 21^st century • Sociological theorists • sociological theory • sociological theory analytical ideas • sociological theory and the 21^st century • sociological theory concepts • sociological theory practical applications • sociological thinking • Sociology • Soziologie • Symbolic Interactionism • Talcott Parsons • teaching sociological theory • The Chicago School of sociology • Thomas Luckmann • Ulrich Beck • W.E.B. DuBois theory • Zygmunt Bauman
• ISBN-13: 9781119410898 / 9781119410898