This meticulous collection of contemporary sociological theory is the definitive guide to current perspectives and approaches in the field. Organized thematically, this volume includes the most representative material available on topics such as symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, structuralism, network theory, critical theory, feminist theory, and the debates over modernity and postmodernity. The theories of Foucault, Giddens, and Bourdieu are thoroughly represented in order to enable the reader to examine their work in depth. For this second edition, selected readings bring the book up to date and enhance the richness of the text by way of examples, accessibility, and connections to today's theoretical discussions. Editorial introductions put these readings into theoretical perspective, making this an authoritative and compact survey of contemporary sociological theory, and an essential text for undergraduate courses. The approach of giving substantial primary source texts rather than merely "snippets," and backing these up with substantial introductions, is maintained for the new edition. Contemporary Sociological Theory, in conjunction with its complement, Classical Sociological Theory, offers readers a complete overview of sociological theory.

Table of Contents:
General Introduction. Part I: Micro-Sociological Analysis. Introduction to Part I. 1. The Phenomenology of the Social World. (Alfred Schutz). 2. The Social Construction of Reality. (Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann). 3. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. (Erving Goffman). 4. Symbolic Interactionism. (Herbert Blumer). Part II: Exchange and Rationality. Introduction. 5. Social Behavior as Exchange. (George C. Homans). 6. Exchange and Power in Social Life. (Peter M. Blau). 7. The Logic of Collective Action. (Mancur Olson). 8. Rights to Act. (James S. Coleman). 9. Cooperation without Trust. (Karen S. Cook, Russell Hardin & Margaret Levi). Part III: Institutional Analysis. Introduction. 10. Economic Embeddedness. (Mark Granovetter). 11. The Iron Cage Revisited. (Paul J. Dimaggio & Walter L. Powell). 12. CATNETS. (Harrison White). Part IV: The Sociological Theory of Michel Foucault. Introduction. 13. The History of Sexuality. 14. Truth and Power. 15. Discipline and Punish. Part V: The Sociological Theory of Anthony Giddens. Introduction. 16. Some New Rules of Sociological Method. 17. Agency, Structure. 18. The Consequences of Modernity. Part VI: The Sociological Theory of Pierre Bourdieu. Introduction. 19. Social Space and Symbolic Space. 20. Structures, Habitus, Practices. 21. The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed. 22. Rethinking the State: Genesis and Structure of the Bureaucratic Field. Part VII: Race, Gender, and Difference. Introduction. 23. The Conceptual Practices of Power. (Dorothy E. Smith). 24. Black Feminist Thought. (Patricia Hill Collins). 25. Black Skin, White Masks. (Frantz Fanon). 26. The Paradoxes of Integration. (Orlando Patterson). Part VIII: Criticism and Modernity: Sociological Theory of Jurgen Habermas. Introduction. 27. Modernity: An Unfinished Project. 28. The Rationalization of the Life-World. 29. Civil Society and the Political Public Sphere. 30. Learning from Catastrophe. Part IX: Modernity and Postmodernity. Introduction. 31. Social Constraint towards Self-Constraint. (Norbert Elias). 32. Modernity and the Holocaust. (Zygmunt Bauman). 33. We Have Never Been Modern. (Bruno Latour). 34. World-Systems Analysis. (Immanuel Wallerstein). Index