Teaching Yourself Social Theory

David Harris is Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences, College of St Mark & St John, Plymouth

`Social theory is a very difficult subject to teach and it is one that students generally find hard to get to grips with. Teach Yourself Social Theory offers a highly original and comprehensive resource that will be welcomed by students and teachers alike. In an exceptionally wide-ranging text that discusses the classical and contemporary contributions to social theory that students need to know about Harris manages to address the complex issues intrinsic to the field with admirable clarity. From the opening chapters on Marxism and Functionalism to the later chapters on Feminism, Otherness, Foucault, and Postmodernism Teach Yourself Social Theory offers a thoughtful account of the distinctive features of the various perspectives employed in contemporary social analysis to make sense of social life.Teach Yourself Social Theory offers students a well-organized cognitive map of the landscape of social theory and where and when appropriate more specific online reading guides that will allow students to deepen their understanding of particular perspectives and approaches. Harris has produced a very effective social theory text that will be widely appreciated by both students and teachers′ - Barry Smart, Professor of Sociology, University of Portsmouth

• IntroductionPART ONEEconomic ConstraintsMarxism and the Mode of ProductionMoral ConstraintsFunctionalismPART TWOThe Emergent Qualities of Social LifeWeber and EliasTheorizing Subjective ActionPART THREEWeber, Class and the Politics of ClosureThe Turn to GramsciCritical Theory, Positivism and CritiqueFeminism(s)The Politics of OthernessFoucaultPolitics in the `Everyday′PART FOURLanguage Games and Linguistic TurnsHitting the `Posts′