Profiles in Contemporary Social Theory

Bryan S. Turner is Professor of Sociology in the Asian Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore. Previously he was Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge from 1998-2005. His research interests include globalization and religion, concentrating on such issues as religious conflict and the modern state, religious authority and electronic information, religious, consumerism and youth cultures, human rights and religion, the human body, medical change, and religious cosmologies. He is Joint Chief Editor of the journal Citizenship Studies and serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals.

`The publication of this volume will make a dramatic impact, for it shifts the boundaries of current understandings of the field of social theory. It presents a set of cogent, well- informed, well-organized discussions of many authors who are not conventionally seen as relevant to that field. On the other hand, it also reconsiders a number of the field′s established figures and focuses on their contribution to a few thematic concerns, which the editors formulate compellingly in their introduction′ - Gianfranco Poggi, European University Institute`A most innovative and creative collection of essays on contemporary social theory. What stands out about this book is the editors′ choice of thinkers.... Included here are essays not only on many of the most important contemporary social theorists (including some interesting, even surprising, choices), but also on many of the thinkers of the recent past who are having a powerful impact on contemporary social thought. A welcome addition to the personal libraries of not only social theorists, but those in a wide range of specialities in the social sciences′ - George Ritzer, University of Maryland

• Editors′ Introduction - Anthony Elliott and Bryan S TurnerMartin Heidegger - Richard PoltGeorges Bataille - Michael RichardsonMaurice Merleau-Ponty - Nick CrossleyHerbert Marcuse - Douglas KellnerTheodor Adorno - Andrew BowieWalter Benjamin - Graeme GillochJ[um]urgen Habermas - Patrick BaertErving Goffman - Ann BranamanPeter Berger - Bryan S TurnerMichel Foucault - Stephen KatzJean-Fran[ce]cois Lyotard - Victor J SeidlerJacques Lacan - Anthony ElliottJacques Derrida - Christina HowellsRoland Barthes - Chris RojekJulia Kristeva - Kelly OliverLuce Irigaray - Caroline BainbridgeJean Baudrillard - Mike GaneGilles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri - Paul PattonPaul Virilio - John ArmitageHenri Lefebvre - Rob ShieldsPaul Ricoeur - Kathleen BlameyNiklas Luhmann - Jakob ArnoldiCharles Taylor - Marcos Ancelovici and Francis Dupuis-DeriRichard Rorty - Bryan S TurnerNancy Chodorow - Geoffrey Gershenson and Michelle WilliamsAnthony Giddens - Anthony ElliottUlrich Beck - Nick StevensonPierre Bourdieu - Bridget FowlerZygmunt Bauman - Barry SmartDonna J Haraway - Patricia Ticineto Clough and Joseph SchneiderFredric Jameson - Sean HomerStuart Hall - Chris RojekJuliet Mitchell - Sarah WrightEdward Said - Bryan S Turner