Table of Contents

Introduction - George Ritzer and Barry Smart
Theorists, Theories and Theorizing
PART ONE: CLASSICAL SOCIAL THEORY
Modernity, Enlightenment, Revolution and Romanticism - John Rundell
Creating Social Theory
The Origins of Positivism - Jonathan H Turner
The Contributions of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer
Maintaining Marx - Gregor McLennan
Max Weber - Sam Whimster
Work and Interpretation
The Continuing Relevance of Georg Simmel - Birgitta Nedelmann
Staking Out Anew the Field of Sociology
Durkheim′s Project for a Sociological Science - Mike Gane
The Emergence of the New - Hans Joas
Mead′s Theory and Its Contemporary Potential
Karl Mannheim and the Sociology of Knowledge - David Kettler and Volker Meja
Psychoanalysis and Sociology - John O′Neill
From Freudo-Marxism to Freudo-Feminism
Classical Feminist Social Theory - Patricia Madoo Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley
PART TWO: CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORY
Functional, Conflict and Neofunctional Theories - Mark Abrahamson
Talcott Parsons - Robert J Holton
Conservative Apologist or Irreplaceable Icon?
Nietzsche - Robert J Antonio
Social Theory in the Twilight of the Millennium
Critical Theory - Craig Calhoun and Joseph Karaganis
J[um]urgen Habermas′ Theory of Communicative Action - Richard Harvey Brown and Douglas Goodman
An Incomplete Project
Symbolic Interactionism at the End of the Century - Kent L Sandstrom, Daniel D Martin and Gary Alan Fine
Phenomenology and Social Theory - Harvie Ferguson
Fundamentals of Ethnomethodology - Wes Sharrock
Theories of Social Exchange and Exchange Networks - Linda D Molm
Sociological Rational Choice - Douglas D Heckathorn
Contemporary Feminist Theory - Mary F Rogers
Multiculturalism - Charles Lemert
Social Theory and the Postmodern - Stephen Crook
Michel Foucault - Mitchell Dean
`A Man in Danger′
The Macro/Micro Problem and the Problem of Structure and Agency - Barry Barnes
Norbert Elias and Process Sociology - Robert van Krieken
PART THREE: ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORY
Positivism in the Twentieth Century - Peter Halfpenny
Metatheorizing in Sociology - Shanyang Zhao
Cultural Studies and Social Theory - Douglas Kellner
A Critical Intervention
Theories of Consumption - George Ritzer, Douglas Goodman and Wendy Wiedenhoft
Sexualities - Anthony Elliott
Social Theory and the Crisis of Identity
The Embodied Foundations of Social Theory - Chris Shilling
Globalization Theory 2000+ - Roland Robertson
Major Problematics
Nationalism - Gerard Delanty
Between Nation and State
Socialism - Peter Beilharz
Modern Hopes, Postmodern Shadows
Modern Societies as Knowledge Societies - Nico Stehr
Sociology, Morality and Ethics - Barry Smart
On Being with Others
Postsocial Relations - Karin Knorr Cetina
Theorizing Sociality in a Post-social Environment

About the Author

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has also been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence Award. He was awarded the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Association, an honorary doctorate from LaTrobe University in Australia, and the Robin Williams Lectureship from the Eastern Sociological Society. His best-known work, The McDonaldization of Society (8th ed.), has been read by hundreds of thousands of students over two decades and translated into over a dozen languages. Ritzer is also the editor of McDonaldization: The Reader; and author of other works of critical sociology related to the McDonaldization thesis, including Enchanting a Disenchanted World, The Globalization of Nothing, Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, as well as a series best-selling social theory textbooks and Globalization: A Basic Text. He is the Editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2 vols.), the Encyclopedia of Sociology (11 vols.; 2nd edition forthcoming), the Encyclopedia of Globalization (5 vols.), and is Founding Editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture. In 2016 he will publish the second edition of Essentials of Sociology with SAGE.

Barry Smart is Professor of Sociology at the University of Portsmouth and has longstanding research interests in the fields of social theory, political economy, and philosophy. His research interests include critical social research ethics; higher education; and collaborative work on veganism, ethics, lifestyle and environment. 

Reviews

`This book is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the roots, current debates and future development of social theory. It will be required reading for scholars and students in sociology, social philosophy and cultural studies... A genuine comprehensive treatment that provides a bridge between European and American perspectives, serving the needs of students and teachers in social sciences′ - The Hindu `Ritzer and Smart provide a judicious editorial guide to the complexities of social theory from the classics to contemporary approaches. A genuinely comprehensive treatment that provides a bridge between European and American perspectives, the Handbook will serve the needs of students and teachers in the social sciences - a laudable work of theoretical integration′ - Bryan S Turner, University of Cambridge `We are in the midst of a great change: social theory is replacing sociological theory. Ritzer and Smart make use of the time-honored device of the "Handbook" to bring order to this new, often conflicting, and often confusing, intellectual field. They bring together a sparkling array of articles by some of the best minds in contemporary sociological theory. The result is a significant clarification of the transition from sociological to social theory that we are undergoing today′ - Jeffrey Alexander, University of California