Full Description
`Social theory is a very difficult subject to teach and it is one that students generally find hard to get to grips with. Teaching Yourself Social Theory offers a highly original and comprehensive resource that will be welcomed by students and teachers alike' - Barry Smart, University of Portsmouth
`I have no hesitation in recommending Harris' text to students and teachers of social theory' - Sociology
This refreshing and accessible text demonstrates how social theory can be made into an intelligible discourse that touches upon key aspects of everyday life. The abstraction and formalism of much contemporary social theory is criticized as unnecessarily `scholastic' for the beginner. The author maintains that the main problems in studying the subject are not intrinsic to social theory, but derive from how the subject is taught as a university discipline. This lively book uses non-specialist terms to introduce more complex themes, and incorporates a Website with questions and reading guides to some of the classic works.
Contents
Introduction
PART ONE
Economic Constraints
Marxism and the Mode of Production
Moral Constraints
Functionalism
PART TWO
The Emergent Qualities of Social Life
Weber and Elias
Theorizing Subjective Action
PART THREE
Weber, Class and the Politics of Closure
The Turn to Gramsci
Critical Theory, Positivism and Critique
Feminism(s)
The Politics of Otherness
Foucault
Politics in the `Everyday'
PART FOUR
Language Games and Linguistic Turns
Hitting the `Posts'
