Handbook of Social Theory

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.

`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

• Introduction - George Ritzer and Barry SmartTheorists, Theories and TheorizingPART ONE: CLASSICAL SOCIAL THEORYModernity, Enlightenment, Revolution and Romanticism - John RundellCreating Social TheoryThe Origins of Positivism - Jonathan H TurnerThe Contributions of Auguste Comte and Herbert SpencerMaintaining Marx - Gregor McLennanMax Weber - Sam WhimsterWork and InterpretationThe Continuing Relevance of Georg Simmel - Birgitta NedelmannStaking Out Anew the Field of SociologyDurkheim′s Project for a Sociological Science - Mike GaneThe Emergence of the New - Hans JoasMead′s Theory and Its Contemporary PotentialKarl Mannheim and the Sociology of Knowledge - David Kettler and Volker MejaPsychoanalysis and Sociology - John O′NeillFrom Freudo-Marxism to Freudo-FeminismClassical Feminist Social Theory - Patricia Madoo Lengermann and Jill Niebrugge-BrantleyPART TWO: CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORYFunctional, Conflict and Neofunctional Theories - Mark AbrahamsonTalcott Parsons - Robert J HoltonConservative Apologist or Irreplaceable Icon?Nietzsche - Robert J AntonioSocial Theory in the Twilight of the MillenniumCritical Theory - Craig Calhoun and Joseph KaraganisJ[um]urgen Habermas′ Theory of Communicative Action - Richard Harvey Brown and Douglas GoodmanAn Incomplete ProjectSymbolic Interactionism at the End of the Century - Kent L Sandstrom, Daniel D Martin and Gary Alan FinePhenomenology and Social Theory - Harvie FergusonFundamentals of Ethnomethodology - Wes SharrockTheories of Social Exchange and Exchange Networks - Linda D MolmSociological Rational Choice - Douglas D HeckathornContemporary Feminist Theory - Mary F RogersMulticulturalism - Charles LemertSocial Theory and the Postmodern - Stephen CrookMichel Foucault - Mitchell Dean`A Man in Danger′The Macro/Micro Problem and the Problem of Structure and Agency - Barry BarnesNorbert Elias and Process Sociology - Robert van KriekenPART THREE: ISSUES IN SOCIAL THEORYPositivism in the Twentieth Century - Peter HalfpennyMetatheorizing in Sociology - Shanyang ZhaoCultural Studies and Social Theory - Douglas KellnerA Critical InterventionTheories of Consumption - George Ritzer, Douglas Goodman and Wendy WiedenhoftSexualities - Anthony ElliottSocial Theory and the Crisis of IdentityThe Embodied Foundations of Social Theory - Chris ShillingGlobalization Theory 2000+ - Roland RobertsonMajor ProblematicsNationalism - Gerard DelantyBetween Nation and StateSocialism - Peter BeilharzModern Hopes, Postmodern ShadowsModern Societies as Knowledge Societies - Nico StehrSociology, Morality and Ethics - Barry SmartOn Being with OthersPostsocial Relations - Karin Knorr CetinaTheorizing Sociality in a Post-social Environment